Pathways to Resilience III: Beyond Nature vs. Nurture

Abstract #326
The Role of Resilience Processes in Emotion Dysregulation, Parent Responses, and Childhood Loneliness
Presenter: Laura Schwartz
Abstract:
Unsupportive parent/child interactions can negatively impact children at multiple levels of functioning. It is unknown what role child resilience may play in buffering these deleterious effects. This study examined the associations between children's dysregulation of their anger, mothers' responses to their children's anger, and children's feelings of loneliness, as well as the moderating role of resilience processes. Participants included 174 children in grades 3-5 (Mgrade= 3.93). Children were predominately white (73%) and 53% were female. Children reported on their mothers' responses to their anger on the Emotions as a Child Scale to derive Neglect, Punish, Override, Magnify, and Support subscales. Self-reported mean scores for Peer Loneliness on the Loneliness Scale, Anger Dysregulation on the Children's Emotion Management Scale and total Resilience on the Child Youth Resilience Measure were used in all analyses. Separate multiple regressions for each parental response to anger subscale tested moderated mediation models. Results indicated significant moderated mediation, such that Resilience decreased the negative impact of Child Anger Dysregulation on Peer Loneliness (β=.05, p=.03) when mothers used Neglect, Magnify, Support, and Override responses to their children’s anger. Findings suggest that resilience processes, such as personal skills and education, may serve as a safeguard against childhood loneliness.