Browsing by Author "Bell, Martha A."

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    Associations between maternal personality dysfunction and emotion suppression and adolescent emotion suppression
    Phillips, Jennifer J.; Smith, Cynthia L.; Bell, Martha A. (2024-11-27)
    Background: Adaptive strategies of emotion regulation are important for adolescents, as maladaptive strategies of such can manifest as psychopathology that is sometimes severe. Individual biological characteristics and influences from peers have been shown to have an effect on the development of emotion regulation strategies in adolescents. Maternal factors, however, have received less attention in this age group regarding how they might predict emotion regulation in adolescents. Given that prior work has demonstrated that certain maternal factors, like emotion regulation and personality, play a crucial role in the development of emotion regulation strategies in early childhood, we sought to examine these associations in adolescents in our current study. Methods: Adolescents and their mothers (n = 123) both self-reported data on their own emotion regulation, and mothers also self-reported data on their own personality dysfunction. We operationalized maternal and adolescent emotion regulation as emotion suppression, a maladaptive emotion regulation strategy that is commonly used by adolescents. Results: Our data demonstrated that both maternal emotion suppression and interpersonal personality dysfunction were positively associated with adolescent emotion suppression. No associations among maternal intrapersonal personality functioning and adolescent emotion suppression were detected. Conclusions: Maternal personality dysfunction and emotion suppression both independently predicted adolescent emotion suppression use. These results support the idea that maternal characteristics play a role in shaping emotion regulation in adolescence.
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    Parenting Behaviors Influence Children’s Mathematical Skills: Examining Potential Mediating and Moderating Roles of Child Executive Function
    Díaz Benítez, Vanessa P. (Virginia Tech, 2023-11-09)
    Parenting sets up the characteristics of the environment in which development takes place, making it a major predictor of most developmental outcomes, including academic skills. Much research has demonstrated that parenting behaviors influence math performance, however, the mechanisms and conditions under which this association takes place remain unclear. My thesis project assessed how child executive functions (EFs) influence the effects of middle childhood parenting on adolescents’ math skills. 77 mother-child dyads from Blacksburg contributed data in two different occasions: during the first visit (child age=9), maternal parenting behaviors (supportive and non-supportive), and child EF were assessed via questionnaires, behavioral coding, and a battery of EF tasks; during the second visit (child age=14), children’s math skills were assessed using a standardized test of achievement. Regression analyses revealed a direct effect of a composite measure of non-supportive parenting during middle childhood on adolescents’ math performance. Furthermore, EF did not mediate or moderate the effect of parenting on math skills, when using composite measures of parenting. However, when the parenting behaviors were assessed individually, maternal facilitation of attention, maternal expressive encouragement, and maternal minimizing reactions had indirect effects on adolescents’ math skills via EFs; specifically, working memory and inhibitory control were significant mediators. Furthermore, child cognitive flexibility moderated the effect of maternal distress reactions on adolescents’ math skills, but only when the levels of cognitive flexibility are considerably low.
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    A six-year longitudinal study of the differential effects of abuse and neglect on executive functioning and emotion regulation
    Clinchard, Claudia J. (Virginia Tech, 2023-04-20)
    Child maltreatment impacts approximately one in seven children in the United States, leading to many adverse outcomes throughout life. Adolescence is a time period that is critical for the development of self-regulation, as it is when the prefrontal cortex is actively developing. Existing research demonstrates the numerous adverse effects maltreatment may have on self-regulation, which encompasses executive function and emotion regulation abilities. However, there is little research examining how abuse and neglect may differently affect the developmental trajectories of executive function and emotion regulation throughout adolescence and into young adulthood. In the current study, 167 adolescents participated approximately annually at six time points, from ages 14 to 20. At each of the six time points, adolescents completed three executive function tasks as well as self-report questionnaires on their emotion regulation abilities and strategies. Information on maltreatment experienced from ages 1 to 13 was collected when the adolescents were approximately 18 to 20 years of age. Conditional growth curve models were utilized to test the differential effects of abuse and neglect on the growth trajectories of executive function abilities and emotion regulation difficulties and strategy use. The results revealed that neglect was associated with developmental changes in working memory abilities, such that greater amounts of neglect were associated with slower increases in working memory abilities across ages 14 to 20. Further, abuse was associated with developmental changes in difficulties in emotion regulation abilities, such that greater amounts of abuse were associated with larger increases in difficulties in emotion regulation abilities from ages 14 to 20. Finally, neglect was associated with the initial level (at age 14) of difficulties in emotion regulation abilities, such that greater levels of neglect were associated with higher initial levels of difficulties in emotion regulation abilities as compared to individuals with lesser amounts of experienced neglect. These findings suggest that working memory development during adolescence into young adulthood may be more vulnerable to childhood neglect and that both abuse and neglect in childhood may have adverse impacts on the development of emotion regulation abilities.