(PS8-A5) Emotion Control, Overreactive Parenting, and Mothers' Executive Functions

Research has consistently demonstrated that mothers’ emotion control difficulties are associated with their self-reported and observed overreactive parenting (Crandall et al., 2015). Parents who have difficulties managing their negative emotions and experience more anger are more likely to discipline harshly. In addition to this ‘hot’ emotional process, emerging evidence also suggests that poorer ‘cool’ cognitive executive function (EF) is associated with mothers’ use of overreactive discipline (Zelazo et al., 2012). Moreover, emotion control relies, in part, on several cool executive functions, i.e., inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility (Diamond, 2015; Dix, 1991). Thus, the ability to discipline calmly and effectively, may result from an interaction of the hot emotional and cool cognitive systems. In this study, we examined the direct and moderated roles of emotion control and EF in overreactive parenting. We hypothesized that (1) mothers’ emotion control difficulties and poorer EF (assessed via self-report and behavioral tasks) would be related to more self-reported overreactive parenting and (2) that emotion control and EF would interact such that poorer EF would intensify the relation between emotion control difficulties and overactive discipline.

This socioeconomically diverse sample included 57 mothers (M_age = 35.2) of 2- to 5-year-old children. Mothers completed questionnaires on emotion control, executive functions, and overreactive discipline, as well as a laboratory assessment of executive functions. Consistent with the proposed hypothesis, mothers’ poorer emotion control was associated with more self-reported overreactive parenting (r = .43, p</em> < .001). Main effects of high-performing inhibition performance and more self-reported overreactive parenting were associated (r = -.27, p < .05). Similarly, poor working memory performance was associated with more self-reported overreactive parenting (r = .27, p < .05). Additionally, more self-reported difficulty with cognitive flexibility was associated with more self-reported overreactive parenting (r = .25, p < .05). However, there was no significant moderating effect of mothers’ EF performance or their self-report of EF on the associations between emotion control and overreactive parenting.

Although the lack of support for the interaction was surprising, the findings from this study add to the growing body of research that considers EF performance in parenting contexts. We will discuss the implications of our mixed findings with respect to issues surrounding EF measurement and provide suggestions for intervention efforts.