Psychologically Controlling Parenting during Toddlerhood: The Role of Mothers’ Perceived Parenting History and Emotion Regulation Style

This study investigated whether mothers’ own perceived parenting history (in their own family of origin) relates to mothers’ self-reported use of psychological control during the toddler period and whether mothers’ emotion regulation capacities play an important underlying role in this regard. A community sample of 150 primiparous mothers participated in a longitudinal study, including both a prenatal and postnatal assessment (2 years after birth). Results of structural equation modeling indicated that mothers’ own retrospectively perceived history of psychologically controlling parenting prior to childbirth related to their psychologically controlling parenting behavior vis-à-vis their toddlers. Mothers’ maladaptive emotional regulation, and dysregulation in particular, was found to play a mediating role in this association. The results highlight that mothers’ perceived parenting history is an important prenatal predictor of mothers’ own (self-reported) use of psychological control in the first years after childbirth, with maternal emotion regulation helping to account for this association.