Comparing Enacted and Perceived Parental Communication as Predictors of Adolescents’ Emotion Regulation in Families with Harmful versus Non-Harmful Parental Alcohol Use

ABSTRACT Emotion regulation is an important skill that adolescents typically learn through early interactions with their primary caregivers. Associations between parental communication and adolescent emotion regulation are well-documented however, it is unclear whether the parent’s actual communication behavior or adolescents’ perceptions of the parent’s behavior is a more robust predictor of emotion regulation outcomes. This study used Baumrind’s parenting styles typology as a theoretical foundation for examining parents’ enacted responsiveness and control and adolescents’ perceptions of their parent’s responsiveness and control during conversation as competing predictors of adolescents’ self-reported emotion regulation during two parent-child interactions. Sixty parent-adolescent dyads participated in an interaction-based study comparing communication dynamics between families with (n = 30) and without harmful parental alcohol use (n = 30). Parent-child interactions were coded by outside observers for the presence of parental responsiveness and control and adolescents completed self-report measures of their perceptions of the parent’s responsiveness and control and their own emotion regulation following the interactions. Results indicated that adolescent perceptions of parental communication were stronger predictors of adolescent emotion regulation than the observed parental communication behavior. In addition, perceived parental control was more strongly associated with adolescent emotion regulation in families with harmful parental alcohol use.