This research was designed to contribute to an understanding of child outcomes and parenting practices associated with father-perpetrated maltreatment, as well as to identify processes that may contribute to emotion regulation difficulties in maltreated children. In particular, the studies described in this dissertation investigated paternal emotion socialization practices as potential pathways to emotion dysregulation in physically maltreated children. In the first study, a normative sample of 200 young adults participated in a retrospective analysis, whereby participants completed questionnaires designed to measure the relationships between history of physical maltreatment, emotion socialization, and current-day emotion regulation. In this study, 26.9% of participants endorsed a childhood history of father-perpetrated physical maltreatment. The second study explored these same relationships in a concurrent analysis of physically maltreating and non-maltreating father-child dyads. Fourteen physically maltreated children and their fathers were recruited from the Children’s Aid Society and treatment programs for abusive fathers, and a control group matched on demographic variables was recruited from the community. Father-child dyads participated in an emotion interaction task where they discussed the child’s experience of negative emotions; interactions were videotaped and coded for fathers’ validating and invalidating responses to children’s emotions. Fathers and children also completed measures that further assessed paternal emotion socialization, as well as children’s emotion regulation. Across both studies, findings indicated that physically maltreated children experienced more difficulties with emotion regulation than their non-maltreated peers. Moreover, abusive fathers were more likely to use non-supportive (neglect, punish, invalidation) and anger magnifying socialization practices, and less likely to use supportive (reward, validation) emotion socialization. Finally, results showed that the relationship between physical maltreatment and emotion dysregulation was mediated through the indirect effects of emotion socialization (reward, neglect, punish, magnify anger, validation, invalidation). In particular, data from child maltreatment victims consistently indicated that paternal neglect of negative emotions and magnification of anger were the strongest unique mediators. Together, results highlight the important role of fathers in the regulatory development of maltreated children. Furthermore, they provide support for intervention efforts designed to decrease non-supportive emotion socialization, while fostering anger management, emotional responsivity, and emotion coaching skills for physically abusive fathers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/65704 |
| Date | 13 August 2014 |
| Creators | McGinn, Holly |
| Contributors | Scott, Katreena |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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