Multifaceted emotion regulation, stress and affect in mothers of young children

Abstract

We tested a novel multi-component emotion self-regulation construct that captured physiological (vagal tone), cognitive (reappraisal) and temperament (effortful control) aspects of emotion regulation (ER) as a moderator of the link between more stressors and greater negative/less positive affectivity (NA and PA). A socio-economically diverse sample of 151 women with young children completed questionnaires and a laboratory visit (including cognitive and parent–child interaction tasks and vagal tone measurement). Women with more stressors had more NA and less PA. Furthermore, for NA only, having more stressors was substantially associated with NA but only among women with the lowest ER. This pattern was evident for the composite as well as individual indicators of ER. Results were not attributable to individual differences in executive function. Findings are discussed in light of the diathesis-stress model of stress and coping.

Keywords:

• Emotion regulation
• Stress
• Affect
• Executive function

Acknowledgement

We thank the study participants and research staff. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NICHD or National Institutes of Health.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [grant numbers HD57319, HD60110, MH99437].