The Protective Effects of Parent-Child Emotion Dialogues for Preschoolers Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence

Overview

Journal Attach Hum Dev

Publisher Informa Healthcare

Specialty Social Sciences

Date 2023 Nov 14

PMID 37962391

Authors

Renee Lamoreau

Elsa Obus

Nina Koren-Karie

Sarah A O Gray

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) during early childhood is associated with self-regulation difficulties. Caregivers can facilitate children's self-regulation through emotion-focused conversations about past experiences, buffering downstream effects. However, caregivers experiencing violence may avoid distressing emotions activated by such conversations. This paper explores two different models of relational stress responses, one involving indirect effects (i.e. spillover effects) and the other moderation (i.e. buffering effects). Mothers (n = 117), oversampled for violence exposure, self-reported on IPV and participated in an emotional reminiscing task with children (aged 3-5 years); narratives were coded for maternal sensitive guidance. Maternal sensitive guidance was related to children's self-regulation. Sensitive guidance did not have indirect effects in the association between IPV exposure and children's self-regulation, but did buffer the association between physical IPV and self-regulation; this pattern did not hold for psychological IPV. Results suggest sensitive guidance during reminiscing may promote self-regulation in contexts of high IPV.

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