Parental Predictors of Children’s Shame and Guilt at Age 6 in a Multimethod, Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Shame and guilt are self-conscious emotions that begin to develop early in life and are associated with various forms of psychopathology. However, little is known about the factors that contribute to these emotions in young children. Specifically, no longitudinal studies to date have examined a range of parent factors that shape the expression of children’s shame and guilt. The current multimethod, longitudinal study sought to determine whether parenting style, parental psychopathology, and parents’ marital satisfaction assessed when children were age 3 predict expressions of shame and guilt in children at age 6. A large community sample of families (N = 446; 87.4% Caucasian) with 3-year-old children (45.7% female) was recruited through commercial mailing lists. Parent variables were assessed when children were age 3 with mother- and father-report questionnaires and a diagnostic interview. Children’s expressions of shame and guilt were observed in the laboratory at age 6. Fathers’, but not mothers’, history of depression and permissive parenting assessed when children were age 3 predicted children’s expressions of shame and guilt when children were age 6; parents’ marital dissatisfaction also predicted children’s shame and guilt. These findings suggest that parents, and fathers in particular, contribute to expressions of self-conscious emotions in children. These data on emotional development may be useful for better characterizing the risk and developmental pathways of psychopathology.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Portions of this work were presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Honolulu, Hawaii, from July 31 to August 4, 2013.

FUNDING

This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health grants R01 MH069942 (Klein), F31 MH084444 (Bufferd), and General Clinical Research Center grant M01 RR10710 (Stony Brook University, National Center for Research Resources). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Mental Health or the National Institutes of Health.

Notes

¹ When analyses were conducted separately for each parent’s DAS score, both sets of results were significant at a trend (p < .10) level.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health grants R01 MH069942 (Klein), F31 MH084444 (Bufferd), and General Clinical Research Center grant M01 RR10710 (Stony Brook University, National Center for Research Resources). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Mental Health or the National Institutes of Health.