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Caregivers’ Responses to Children’s Negative Emotions: Associations with Preschoolers’ Executive Functioning

There is a lack of knowledge regarding the connection between parental emotional responsiveness and children’s executive functioning (EF). This study aimed to explore the relations between caregivers’ reactions to their children’s distress and children’s EF. Mothers of 136 preschoolers reported thei...

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Autores principales: Fernandes, Carla, Santos, Ana F., Fernandes, Marilia, Veríssimo, Manuela, Santos, António J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9317396/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35884059
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9071075
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author Fernandes, Carla
Santos, Ana F.
Fernandes, Marilia
Veríssimo, Manuela
Santos, António J.
author_facet Fernandes, Carla
Santos, Ana F.
Fernandes, Marilia
Veríssimo, Manuela
Santos, António J.
author_sort Fernandes, Carla
collection PubMed
description There is a lack of knowledge regarding the connection between parental emotional responsiveness and children’s executive functioning (EF). This study aimed to explore the relations between caregivers’ reactions to their children’s distress and children’s EF. Mothers of 136 preschoolers reported their reactions to their children’s negative emotions using the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale. Children’s EF was assessed through the mothers and teachers’ reports using the Behavioral Inventory of Executive Functioning for Preschool Children. Results showed that the mothers’ perceived use of negative emotional regulation responses (i.e., punitive and minimizing reactions) was associated with lower levels of EF in children, as reported by both mothers and teachers. The association between the mothers’ use of positive emotional regulation responses (i.e., problem-focused, emotion-focused, and expressive encouragement reactions) and children’s EF was not significant. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the mothers’ use of negative emotional regulation responses accounted for significant proportions of variance in EF indexes. These findings suggest that parental socialization of emotion could be important for children’s EF. Specifically, caregivers’ negative emotional regulation responses to children’s distress may serve as a risk factor for poorer EF in children. Efforts to improve children’s EF may be more effective when parental emotional responsiveness to their distress is considered.
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spelling pubmed-93173962022-07-27 Caregivers’ Responses to Children’s Negative Emotions: Associations with Preschoolers’ Executive Functioning Fernandes, Carla Santos, Ana F. Fernandes, Marilia Veríssimo, Manuela Santos, António J. Children (Basel) Article There is a lack of knowledge regarding the connection between parental emotional responsiveness and children’s executive functioning (EF). This study aimed to explore the relations between caregivers’ reactions to their children’s distress and children’s EF. Mothers of 136 preschoolers reported their reactions to their children’s negative emotions using the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale. Children’s EF was assessed through the mothers and teachers’ reports using the Behavioral Inventory of Executive Functioning for Preschool Children. Results showed that the mothers’ perceived use of negative emotional regulation responses (i.e., punitive and minimizing reactions) was associated with lower levels of EF in children, as reported by both mothers and teachers. The association between the mothers’ use of positive emotional regulation responses (i.e., problem-focused, emotion-focused, and expressive encouragement reactions) and children’s EF was not significant. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the mothers’ use of negative emotional regulation responses accounted for significant proportions of variance in EF indexes. These findings suggest that parental socialization of emotion could be important for children’s EF. Specifically, caregivers’ negative emotional regulation responses to children’s distress may serve as a risk factor for poorer EF in children. Efforts to improve children’s EF may be more effective when parental emotional responsiveness to their distress is considered. MDPI 2022-07-19 /pmc/articles/PMC9317396/ /pubmed/35884059 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9071075 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Fernandes, Carla
Santos, Ana F.
Fernandes, Marilia
Veríssimo, Manuela
Santos, António J.
Caregivers’ Responses to Children’s Negative Emotions: Associations with Preschoolers’ Executive Functioning
title Caregivers’ Responses to Children’s Negative Emotions: Associations with Preschoolers’ Executive Functioning
title_full Caregivers’ Responses to Children’s Negative Emotions: Associations with Preschoolers’ Executive Functioning
title_fullStr Caregivers’ Responses to Children’s Negative Emotions: Associations with Preschoolers’ Executive Functioning
title_full_unstemmed Caregivers’ Responses to Children’s Negative Emotions: Associations with Preschoolers’ Executive Functioning
title_short Caregivers’ Responses to Children’s Negative Emotions: Associations with Preschoolers’ Executive Functioning
title_sort caregivers’ responses to children’s negative emotions: associations with preschoolers’ executive functioning
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9317396/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35884059
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9071075
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