Young Puerto Rican Mothers' Cultural Orientation and Parenting Behaviors: Associations with Subsequent Child Emotion Dysregulation.

Abstract

Objective: Children of Latinx adolescent mothers are at risk for regulatory difficulties. However, a paucity of research has examined parenting behaviors and children's early emotional development in such families.

Design: Longitudinal associations between observed parenting behaviors (sensitivity, directiveness, child-directed language) at 18 months and children's emotion dysregulation at 18 and 24 months were tested among young mainland Puerto Rican mothers (N = 123) and their toddlers. Given the cultural variability present in Latinx families, whether mothers' cultural orientation moderated these associations was also tested.

Results: Maternal sensitivity predicted less child emotion dysregulation at 24 months at all levels of cultural orientation. Directiveness was unrelated to dysregulation. Child-directed language predicted lower dysregulation only when mothers endorsed lower levels of American cultural orientation.

Conclusions: It is important to consider families' cultural context when identifying maternal behaviors that are most beneficial to child development.