Preschool Age Children’s Frustration and Parenting Hassles Both Account for Mothers’ and Fathers’ Negative Emotional Experience during a Child Delayed Reward Task

open_access
Open Access
Author:
Leadbeater, Jenna
Area of Honors:
Psychology
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Pamela Marie Cole, Thesis Supervisor
Kenneth N. Levy, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
parent emotion
child emotion expression
negative emotion
parenting hassles
Abstract:
Parenting is emotionally evocative, which has an effect on parental behavior and, by extension, children’s development (Dix, 1991; Leerkes & Augustine, 2019). However, studies of the emotions that parents experience in situations with their children are only just emerging. The thesis investigates mothers’ and fathers’ emotions during a task in which preschool age children must cope with a delayed reward. The findings should contribute to addressing the gap in knowledge about an important aspect of parenting.   Specifically, this thesis examined mothers’ and fathers’ self-reported negative emotion when their preschool age child’s goal of gaining a reward was blocked. The extent to which the child’s observed frustration (anger/sadness intensity) and the intensity of parents’ negative experiences of daily hassles in the months prior to the lab visit were hypothesized to account for variation in parents’ self-reported negative emotion during the lab procedure. Preschool age children (30- to 60-month-olds; M age = 45.05, SD = 8.09) were required to wait to open a gift while their mothers completed work (N =153) and to solve a difficult puzzle to earn a selected prize while their fathers completed work (N = 99). The intensity of children’s nonverbal expressions of anger and sadness were rated from video records. Toward the end of the tasks, parents rated the intensity of 20 different emotions they might have felt during the procedure. In addition, prior to the procedure, each parent completed the Parenting Daily Hassles Scale (PDH; Crnic & Greenberg, 1990), describing how often and how negatively they had experienced various life and family hassles over the past 6 months. The thesis tested the hypotheses that (a) the intensity of children’s nonverbal anger and sadness during the task would account significantly for variance in the intensity of the parent’s self-reported negative emotion, and (b) the extent to which hassles over the past 6 months were experienced as negative would strengthen the association between children’s observed negative emotion and parents’ self-reported negative emotion during the lab tasks.  Two hierarchical multiple regressions, one for each parent, tested the hypotheses. The results indicated for each parent, the intensity of child nonverbal anger and sadness intensity accounted for significant variance in parent self-reported negative emotion during the task. The first hypothesis was supported but the second was not. There was no significant interaction of observed child negative emotion and parent self-reported negative hassles for either parent. However, the extent to which hassles over the past 6 months were experienced negatively independently predicted parental self-report of negative emotion during the lab visit and accounted for unique additional variance in their reported negative emotion during the lab tasks. Thus, rather than finding the hypothesized moderating interaction, there was a cumulative effect of two sources of potential stress — the intensity of children’s expressed frustration and negatively experienced hassles that occurred in the months prior to the lab visit.   This thesis highlights a unique perspective on parents’ emotions during lab tasks designed to test their children’s self-regulation skills. Future lab-based studies of children’s self-regulation should consider the stresses that parents have experienced prior to participating in a lab visit. Further, the degree to which parents’ negative emotions influence their behavior toward the child should be considered in tasks in which parents are allowed to interact with the child following procedures in which parents are busy and children are frustrated. Future research should continue to consider the impact of child effects on parent emotional experience.