The role of maternal child maltreatment history and unsupportive emotion socialization in the intergenerational transmission of emotion regulation difficulties

Background: Maternal mental health problems and poor parenting are thought to account for the intergenerational transmission of poor outcomes to offspring of mothers who have experienced child maltreatment. Objective: Given that emotion regulation (ER) difficulties have been linked to adult psychopathology and maladaptive parenting, the goal of the present study was to examine the mechanisms through which a maternal history of child maltreatment, and subsequent difficulties with ER, might contribute to unsupportive emotion socialization and the intergenerational transmission of ER difficulties. Participants and setting: Mothers and their young adult children (aged 18-25) were recruited from across Canada to participate in an online study (N = 185 dyads). Methods: Mothers responded to questionnaires assessing their child maltreatment histories and ER difficulties. Young adults retrospectively reported on their mothers' emotion socialization behaviours in adolescence as well as their own difficulties with ER. Results: A moderated mediation analysis revealed that mothers who endorsed more types of child maltreatment were described as using more unsupportive contingencies, but only in the context of high levels of maternal ER difficulties. The indirect effect of maternal child maltreatment on young adults' ER difficulties was only significant for mothers with high levels of ER difficulties. More specifically, maternal difficulties with impulse control and emotional clarity contributed to more unsupportive contingencies. Conclusions: Mothers who have experienced multiple forms of child maltreatment may be more likely to struggle with ER and engage in unsupportive emotion socialization behaviours, which may increase the risk of emotional difficulties in their children. Survivors of child maltreatment should have access to interventions that promote ER skills to improve their own well-being and to prevent the transmission of ER difficulties to future generations.