Zhuo Rachel Han

The Relation of Parental Emotion Dysregulation to Children’s Psychopathology Symptoms: The Moderating Role of Child Emotion Dysregulation

This study investigated the roles of parents’ and children’s emotion dysregulation in children’s display of internalizing and externalizing symptoms by incorporating person- and variable-centered approaches. Sixty-four children (ages 8–11) participated in this study with their mothers. Study variables were collected via multiple methods, including behavioral observation and questionnaire assessment from both parents’ and children’s perspectives. Using model-based cluster analysis, children’s profiles with regulating emotions were created by incorporating multiple measurements. Two profiles were identified and applied in a moderation model testing whether the combination of parents’ and children’s regulatory style influence child outcomes. Results showed that children’s emotion dysregulation profiles moderated the relationship between parental emotion dysregulation and child internalizing symptoms, with children who adopted more internalizing regulatory styles display more internalizing symptoms in the context of high parental emotion dysregulation. Implications for the measurement of emotion regulation in the family context, and future directions for intervention, are discussed.

Cognitive Reappraisal in Preschoolers: Neuropsychological Evidence of Emotion Regulation From an ERP Study

Late positive potential (LPP) is associated with the magnitude and intensity of emotional reactivity. Studies have linked the adoption of cognitive reappraisal to the reduction of LPP amplitude in adults and school-age children but not in preschoolers. It may be due to preschoolers’ difficulty in understanding and remembering given interpretations. We examined changes in LPP amplitudes following simplified interpretations of unpleasant pictures in 20 preschoolers (48–71 months). Results demonstrated that LPP amplitudes, following neutral interpretations, were lower as compared to negative interpretations, suggesting that preschoolers as young as four have developed the ability to use cognitive reappraisal strategies following instructions.

Late positive potential (LPP) modulation during affective picture processing in preschoolers.

Research has demonstrated that late positive potential (LPP) is modulated by affective pictures in school-age children, adolescents and adults. However, little is known about such modulation in specific younger populations such as preschoolers. In this study, we examined whether LPP modulation during affective picture processing would also be observed in preschoolers as well as investigating the patterns of such modulation by using pictures which elicited emotional reactions of different valences. Twenty preschoolers (M age in months=61.00, SD=7.73) passively viewed pleasant, neutral and unpleasant pictures while their scalp event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Results showed that in preschoolers pleasant and unpleasant pictures elicited significantly larger LPP amplitudes than neutral pictures, and this affective modulation of LPP amplitude emerged in the posterior region and gradually extended to the central and anterior regions.

Parental Emotion Socialization and Child Psychological Adjustment among Chinese Urban Families: Mediation through Child Emotion Regulation and Moderation through Dyadic Collaboration

The theoretical model of emotion regulation and many empirical findings have suggested that children’s emotion regulation may mediate the association between parents’ emotion socialization and children’s psychological adjustment. However, limited research has been conducted on moderators of these relations, despite the argument that the associations between parenting practices and children’s psychological adjustment are probabilistic rather than deterministic. This study examined the mediating role of children’s emotion regulation in linking parents’ emotion socialization and children’s psychological adjustment, and whether dyadic collaboration could moderate the proposed mediation model in a sample of Chinese parents and their children in their middle childhood. Participants were 150 Chinese children (87 boys and 63 girls, Mage = 8.54, SD = 1.67) and their parents (Mage = 39.22, SD = 4.07). Parent–child dyadic collaboration was videotaped and coded from an interaction task. Parents reported on their emotion socialization, children’s emotion regulation and psychopathological symptoms. Results indicated that child emotion regulation mediated the links between parental emotion socialization and child’s psychopathological symptoms. Evidence of moderated mediation was also found: supportive emotion socialization and child emotion regulation were positively correlated only at high and medium levels of dyadic collaboration, with child’s psychopathological symptoms as the dependent variables. Our findings suggested that higher-level parent–child collaboration might further potentiate the protective effect of parental supportive emotion socialization practices against child psychopathological symptoms.

Mental health risks among nurses under abusive supervision: the moderating roles of job role ambiguity and patients’ lack of reciprocity

BackgroundWhile the nursing profession has been associated with mental health problems and the research into the antecedents of mental health has steadily grown, the relationship between abusive supervision and mental health issues of anxiety and depression remains largely unknown.AimThis study aims to examine the relationship between abusive supervision and mental health problems. And we also aim to investigate whether this relationship is moderated by role ambiguity and the patients’ lack of reciprocity.MethodsA total of 227 frontline nurses from two public hospitals completed the survey questionnaire.Results(1) Abusive supervision was positively associated with poor mental health; (2) the positive relationship was moderated by nurses’ perceived role ambiguity in such a way that the relationship was stronger when the perceived role ambiguity is high; (3) the positive relationship was moderated by the patients’ lack of reciprocity in such a way that the relationship was stronger when patients’ lack of reciprocity was high.ConclusionsTo conclude, the present study showed that abusive supervision was positively associated with mental health problems of anxiety and depression among samples of Chinese nurses. Findings of this study also highlighted that this relationship was contingent upon perceived role ambiguity and patients’ reciprocity.

The heart of parenting: Parent HR dynamics and negative parenting while resolving conflict with child.

The current study examined parent heart rate (HR) dynamic changing patterns and their links to observed negative parenting (i.e., emotional unavailability and psychological control) during a parent–child conflict resolution task among 150 parent–child dyads (child age ranged from 6 to 12 years, Mage = 8.54 ± 1.67). Parent HR was obtained from electrocardiogram (ECG) data collected during the parent–child conflict resolution task. Negative parenting was coded offline based on the video recording of the same task. Results revealed that emotionally sensitive parents during the task showed greater HR increases while discussing a conflict and greater HR decreases while resolving the conflict, whereas emotionally unavailable parents showed no changes in HR. However, parent psychological control was not associated with HR dynamics during the task. These findings indicated the physiological underpinnings of parent emotional sensitivity and responsiveness during parent–child interactions. The potential association between HR baseline levels and parenting behaviors was also discussed.

The presence of a feedback-seeking role model in promoting employee feedback seeking: a moderated mediation model

Abstract Despite an increasing number of studies that show a positive relationship between the supportiveness of a feedback source and feedback seeking, little is known about the impact of supervisors’ demonstration of feedback-seeking behavior on promoting employees seeking feedback from them. In addition, although previous studies have shown that feedback seeking is an interactive process and is emotionally charged, to our knowledge, no studies have investigated the role that the source’s emotion regulation played in the feedback seeker’s seeking frequency. The present article developed a moderated mediation model to fill this void and tested it with data from a sample of 215 supervisor–subordinate dyads from China. We hypothesized and found that supervisors’ feedback seeking from subordinates were positively related to subordinates’ feedback seeking from supervisors, mediated by the perceived value and cost of the feedback seeking. The results also supported the moderating roles of supervisors’ emotion regulation in the mediation model.

Power distance and mentor-protégé relationship quality as moderators of the relationship between informal mentoring and burnout: evidence from China

BackgroundThe topic of how to prevent and reduce burnout has drawn great attention from researchers and practitioners in recent years. However, we know little about how mentoring as a form of social support exerts influence on employee burnout.AimThis study aims to examine the contingency side of the mentoring-burnout relationship by addressing the exploratory question of whether individual differences in power distance and relationship quality play important roles in mentoring effectiveness in terms of reducing a protégé’s burnout level.MethodsA total of 210 employees from a technology communications company completed the survey questionnaire.Results(1) A protégés’ power distance moderates the negative relationship between mentoring and burnout in such a way that the relationship is stronger for protégés who are lower rather than higher in power distance; (2) mentor-protégé relationship quality moderates the negative relationship between mentoring and burnout in such a way that the relationship is stronger when the relationship quality is higher rather than lower.ConclusionsIn sum, our results highlight the importance of studying the contingency side of mentoring effects on protégé burnout. Our findings suggest that the individuals’ different cultural values of power distance and mentor-protégé relationship quality are the boundary conditions for the mentoring-burnout relationship. We therefore suggest that research on mentoring-burnout will be advanced by considering the role of the moderating process.

Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS): Factor structure, reliability, and validity.

Numerous studies have identified the significant role of emotion regulation in an individual’s psychological and social functioning. Ever since its development, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) has been widely adopted as a comprehensive measure to assess emotion regulation problems among English-speaking adults. To assess emotion regulation in adults from Chinese-speaking societies and to promote future cross-cultural examination of the emotion regulation processes, the authors aimed to develop a Chinese version of the DERS and provide an initial validation of this instrument. For the purpose of the current study, we recruited 862 Chinese adults from universities and local companies. The results indicated a similar six-factor solution in the Chinese version to the original version. Internal consistency and test–retest reliability were good. Concurrent validity was assessed by examining the correlations of the DERS and its subscales with measures of psychopathological symptoms and self-regulation of negative mood. The results demonstrated strong correlations of the DERS subscales with the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) and the Generalized Expectancy for Negative Mood Regulation Scale, except for that between the awareness subscale and the SCL-90. For the convergent validity, most DERS subscales were significantly correlated with personality traits, emotional intelligence, and self-control ability, with several exceptions. These findings are discussed within the context of the relevant literature.

The Moderating Effects of Maternal Age at Childbirth and Emotion Dysregulation on the Intergenerational Continuity of Emotionally Unsupportive Parenting Behaviors

Little research has investigated factors that may moderate the intergenerational transmission of emotionally unsupportive parenting behaviors. The present study examined the role of two moderators, emotion dysregulation and maternal age at childbirth, on the relation between maternal childhood history of emotional maltreatment and current observations of emotionally unsupportive parenting behaviors in 64 mother–child dyads. Results indicated that mothers who were younger at childbirth seemed more likely to engage in emotionally unsupportive parenting behaviors in the context of high levels of sustained childhood emotional maltreatment, regardless of their level of emotion dysregulation. Mothers who were older at childbirth were at high risk for emotionally unsupportive parenting behaviors in the context of high levels of sustained emotional maltreatment histories and high emotion dysregulation, yet were not at such risk if emotion dysregulation was low. Implications for the buffering effects of emotion regulation on the risk for emotionally unsupportive behaviors were discussed.