Emotional Echoes: Exploring the Dynamic Bond Between Parental Emotion Dysregulation and Child Emotion Lability

Abstract

The acquisition of emotional self-regulation is a key developmental goal in mid-childhood. Emotion dysregulation occurs when emotion regulation is ineffective. Emotion lability is a major manifestation of dysfunctional emotion regulation. Although previous literature has explored the influences on children's emotion regulation, previous studies have typically examined parental influences on children independently, ignoring the interdependence of mother, father and child within the family system as a whole and the parent–child gender differences that exist between these. The purpose of this study was to examine whether intergenerational transmission of emotion regulation continues to occur in the context of family members' emotion dysregulation and whether there are parent–child gender differences in this process. The study utilized three-wave data collected at 6-month intervals, with 317 parents of primary school children participating in the full assessment. Results indicated that intergenerational transmission of emotion regulation persists despite family members' emotion dysregulation. Bidirectional associations emerged between maternal emotion dysregulation and child emotion lability, highlighting mothers' central role in emotional transmission within family systems. In contrast, paternal emotion dysregulation showed limited observable expression in family interactions. Sons' emotion lability uniquely predicted paternal emotion dysregulation and mediated the maternal-paternal dysregulation link. Critically, parents' capacity to serve as effective emotional regulators for children depended on their active self-regulation. These findings necessitate emotion-focused family interventions that simultaneously target parental self-regulation and child outcomes, while integrating gender-specific strategies rather than relying solely on child-directed emotion control programs.