The desire to emulate parental emotional strategies and its relation to emotion dysregulation among emerging adults

ABSTRACT

Emotion regulation (ER) is an integral aspect of emerging adults’ mental health, yet little is known about interpersonal factors that influence ER in during this period. This investigation examines emerging adults’ desire to emulate parental ER skills in the relation between perceived parental ER and emerging adults’ emotion dysregulation.A sample of 79 emerging adults (M_age = 18.55 years, SD = .32; 88.6% female, 69.6% White) completed measures of perceived parental ER (Affective Style Questionnaire [ASQ]Hofmann and Kashdan 2010), emotion dysregulation (Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale [DERS]Gratz and Roemer 2004), and desire to emulate parental ER (Perception of Emotion Regulation Scale [PERS]).A desire to emulate parental ER skills moderated the relationship between perceived parental ER and emerging adults’ emotion dysregulation in general (B = -.10, SE = .048, t = −2.07, p = .043), and low emotional awareness in particular (B = -.04 SE = .02, t = −2.47, p = .02).Findings suggest that emerging adults with an increased desire to emulate parents with lower ER skills report greater emotion dysregulation. Implications for clinical practice, along with future directions for the field of ER, are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Emerging adults
• emotion regulation
• parenting
• desire to emulate

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Emma C. Woodward

Emma Woodward, M.A. is a graduate student in clinical psychology at the University of Houston.

Andres G. Viana

Andres Viana, Ph.D., ABPP is an Assistant Professor at the University of Houston, and Director of the Child Temperament, Thoughts, and Emotions Lab.