UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff WWiinnddssoorr SScchhoollaarrsshhiipp aatt UUWWiinnddssoorr Electronic Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers 2014 YYoouunngg CChhiillddrreenn''ss AAggggrreessssiioonn:: LLiinnkkss BBeettwweeeenn EEmmoottiioonn RReegguullaattiioonn,, MMootthheerr--CChhiilldd SShhaarreedd AAffffeecctt,, PPaarreennttiinngg PPrraaccttiicceess aanndd PPaarreennttiinngg SSuuppppoorrtt Erin L. Romanchych University of Windsor Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd RReeccoommmmeennddeedd CCiittaattiioonn Romanchych, Erin L., "Young Children's Aggression: Links Between Emotion Regulation, Mother-Child Shared Affect, Parenting Practices and Parenting Support" (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 5181. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/5181 This online database contains the full-text of PhD dissertations and Masters’ theses of University of Windsor students from 1954 forward. These documents are made available for personal study and research purposes only, in accordance with the Canadian Copyright Act and the Creative Commons license—CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivative Works). Under this license, works must always be attributed to the copyright holder (original author), cannot be used for any commercial purposes, and may not be altered. Any other use would require the permission of the copyright holder. Students may inquire about withdrawing their dissertation and/or thesis from this database. For additional inquiries, please contact the repository administrator via email ([email protected]) or by telephone at 519-253-3000ext. 3208. YOUNG CHILDREN’S AGGRESSION: LINKS BETWEEN EMOTION REGULATION, MOTHER-CHILD SHARED AFFECT, PARENTING PRACTICES AND PARENTING SUPPORT By Erin L. Romanchych A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies through the Department of Psychology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario, Canada 2014 © 2014 Erin Romanchych Young Children’s Aggression: Links Between Emotion Regulation, Mother-Child Shared Affect, Parenting Practices, and Parenting Support by Erin Romanchych APPROVED BY: ______________________________________________ R. Wright School of Social Work ______________________________________________ K. Babb Department of Psychology ______________________________________________ R. Menna, Advisor Department of Psychology September 17, 2014 DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify that I am the sole author of this thesis and that no part of this thesis has been published or submitted for publication. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge, my thesis does not infringe upon anyone’s copyright nor violate any proprietary rights and that any ideas, techniques, quotations, or any other material from the work of other people included in my thesis, published or otherwise, are fully acknowledged in accordance with the standard referencing practices. Furthermore, to the extent that I have included copyrighted material that surpasses the bounds of fair dealing within the meaning of the Canada Copyright Act, I certify that I have obtained a written permission from the copyright owner(s) to include such material(s) in my thesis and have included copies of such copyright clearances to my appendix. I declare that this is a true copy of my thesis, including any final revisions, as approved by my thesis committee and the Graduate Studies office, and that this thesis has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other University or Institution. ii i ABSTRACT The present research examined links between children’s emotion regulation, mother-child shared affect, mothers’ perceived parenting support, parenting practices (i.e., mothers’ involvement, limit setting, communication), and young children’s physical aggression. Participants were 129 young children (3 to 6 years) and their mothers. Mothers completed questionnaires assessing parenting practices, parenting support, and their children’s emotion regulation and aggressive behaviour. Mother-child dyads participated in a free play task and a structured block task. These mother-child interactive tasks were coded for shared positive and negative affect between the dyads. Higher levels of mothers’ limit setting and communication were each related to lower levels of children’s physical aggression. Higher levels of mothers’ involvement, and limit setting were related to lower levels of children’s physical aggression, partially because children were better at regulating their emotions. These findings are discussed with regards to implications for working with aggressive young children and their parents. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my research supervisor, Dr. Rosanne Menna, for her ideas in developing this project, her tireless encouragement for me to develop my own ideas, and for her constant support and guidance. Beyond her significant contributions to this project, Dr. Menna has inspired me to incorporate my research and clinical work to become the best scientist-practitioner that I can be. Thank you to Dr. Kimberley Babb and Dr. Robin Wright for their support and feedback, which greatly contributed to the final product. I appreciate their warm encouragement and help in making this a positive experience. Thank you to Cassandra Pasiak and Kyle Lago for their endless hours of coding. Without their commitment this project would not have been possible. I am grateful for my friends and family for their unwavering emotional support, patience, and encouragement. Thank you to Julian Franch, my best friend and partner, for helping me stay grounded and balanced throughout this process. Most importantly, thank you to my friends and family, especially my parents, for believing in me and pushing me to pursue my dreams. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY iii ABSTRACT iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix CHAPTER I 1 Introduction 1 Statement of the Problem 1 Aggression in Preschool Children 6 Social Learning Theory 8 Relations between Parenting Practices and Aggression in Young Children 10 Parenting Practices 12 Emotion Regulation 21 Relations between Parenting Practices and Emotion Regulation 23 Relations between Emotion Regulation and Aggression in Young Children 25 Relations between Parenting Practices, Emotion Regulation, and Aggression in Young Children 29 Shared Affect 31 Relations between Shared Affect and Aggression in Young Children 32 Present Study 36 Hypotheses 38 CHAPTER II 42 Method 42 Participants 42 Procedure 46 Measures 48 CHAPTER III 55 Results 55 Data Cleaning 55 Examination of the Assumptions of Univariate Analyses 56 Examination of the Assumptions of Regression Analyses 57 v i Preliminary Analyses 58 Correlations: Hypotheses 1 and 2 59 Correlations: Hypotheses 3 and 4 73 Hypothesis 5 81 CHAPTER IV 85 Discussion 85 Limitations and Future Research 92 Applied Implications 96 Conclusion 99 References 100 VITA AUCTORIS 123 v ii LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1: Demographic Characteristics of the Mothers in the Total Sample 44 TABLE 2: Mean, Standard Deviation, and Range of Study Variables for the Total 60 Sample TABLE 3: Bivariate Correlations Between all Study Variables for Hypotheses 1 61 and 2 TABLE 4: Comparison of Child Gender in Maternal Parenting Practices, 62 Children’s Physical Aggression, Emotion Regulation, and Emotion Dysregulation for Hypotheses 1 and 2 TABLE 5: Mediation of the Effect of Parenting Practices to Children’s 65 Physical Aggression Through Children’s Emotion Regulation (5,000 Bootstrap Samples) TABLE 6: Mediation of the Effect of Parenting Practices to Children’s 70 Physical Aggression Through Children’s Emotion Dysregulation (5,000 Bootstrap Samples) TABLE 7: Bivariate Correlations Between Study Variables Included in Hypotheses 75 3, 4, and 5 TABLE 8: Comparison of Child Gender in Maternal Parenting Practices, 77 Children’s Physical Aggression and Shared Affect for Hypotheses 3, 4, and 5 TABLE 9: Summary of Regression Analyses for Predicting Children’s Physical 80 Aggression with Parenting Practices and Mother-Child Shared Positive Affect in the Second Step (N = 129) TABLE 10: Summary of Regression Analyses for Predicting Children’s Physical 82 Aggression with Mother-Child Shared Positive Affect in the Second Step and Parenting Practices in the Third Step (N = 129) TABLE 11: Comparison of Shared Positive Affect and Shared Negative Affect 84 Between Tasks vi ii LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1: Associations between (a) mothers’ involvement and children’s 66 emotion regulation, (b) children’s emotion regulation and children’s physical aggression, (c) mothers’ involvement and children’s physical aggression, and (c’) mothers’ involvement and children’s physical aggression with children’s emotion regulation as a mediator. FIGURE 2: Associations between (a) mothers’ limit setting and children’s 67 emotion regulation, (b) children’s emotion regulation and children’s physical aggression, (c) mothers’ limit setting and children’s physical aggression, and (c’) mothers’ limit setting and children’s physical aggression with children’s emotion regulation as a mediator. FIGURE 3: Associations between (a) mothers’ involvement and children’s 71 emotion dysregulation, (b) children’s emotion dysregulation and children’s physical aggression, (c) mothers’ involvement and children’s physical aggression, and (c’) mothers’ involvement and children’s physical aggression with children’s emotion dysregulation as a mediator. FIGURE 4: Associations between (a) mothers’ limit setting and children’s 72 emotion dysregulation, (b) children’s emotion dysregulation and children’s physical aggression, (c) mothers’ limit setting and children’s physical aggression, and (c’) mothers’ limit setting and children’s physical aggression with children’s emotion dysregulation as a mediator. FIGURE 5: Associations between (a) mothers’ communication and children’s 74 emotion dysregulation, (b) children’s emotion dysregulation and children’s physical aggression, (c) mothers’ communication and children’s physical aggression, and (c’) mothers’ communication and children’s physical aggression with children’s emotion dysregulation as a mediator. ix