Association Between Maternal Emotional Maltreatment History and Children's Problem Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Mothers' Mentalization and Emotion Socialization

A mothers' emotional maltreatment (EM) history may influence her mentalizing capacity, which is the capacity to reflect on one's and other's mental state and emotion socialization, which would affect her children's problem behaviors. However, no study has examined the mediating role of a mothers' mentalization and emotion socialization on the relationship between the maternal EM history and problem behaviors in their children. Through a structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis, this study aimed to investigate the mediating effect of a mothers' mentalization and emotion socialization on the relationship between maternal EM history and problem behaviors in their children. In particular, this study aimed to identify the distinct roles of two types of mentalization impairments (hypermentalization and hypomentalization) and two dimensions of emotion socialization (nonsupportive reactions and lack of supportive response to a child's negative emotions). In a Korean community, 661 mothers with children aged 7-12 years old completed the Korean versions of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale, and Child Behavior Checklist. The SEM analysis indicated that maternal mentalization and emotion socialization partially mediated the association between maternal self-reported EM history and maternal reports of children's problem behaviors. In particular, the indirect effect of maternal EM on problem behaviors in their children through hypomentalization and nonsupportive reactions was significant. The findings of this study suggest that a mother's hypomentalization and nonsupportive reactions might be a way in which a mothers' EM history leads to problem behaviors in their children.