Parents’ ability to regulate their emotions during challenging discipline situations is important for effective parenting, yet little is known about how specific emotion regulation (ER) strategies influence discipline behaviors. We examined this association using parent-report measures, focusing on the roles of worry and anger, in a cross-sectional sample of 197 parents (72% female) of children ages 2–5 years. Structural equation model analyses showed that cognitive reappraisal was indirectly associated with greater overreactive discipline through increased parent anger, although it was not directly linked to discipline outcomes. Suppression was associated with lower levels of overreactive discipline but showed no significant indirect effects. In contrast, rumination was linked to greater overreactivity through anger and to greater laxness through worry; it also showed an unexpected negative indirect effect on overreactivity through worry. Escape was associated with both forms of discipline and showed indirect effects on overreactivity via anger and on laxness via worry. Finally, capitulation was strongly associated with lax discipline but showed no significant indirect effects through parent emotion. These findings highlight the distinct cognitive-affective pathways linking ER strategies, parental emotional responses, and discipline practices. This understanding may help guide targeted interventions that support parents in managing their emotions during challenging disciplinary situations.
ArnoldD. S.O’LearyS. G.WolffL. S.AckerM. M. (1993). The parenting scale: A measure of dysfunctional parenting in discipline situations. Psychological Assessment, 5(2), 137–144. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.5.2.137
4.
BrownT. A. (2015). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research (2nd ed.). The Guilford Press.
5.
BushmanB. J. (2002). Does venting anger feed or extinguish the flame? Catharsis, rumination, distraction, anger, and aggressive responding. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(6), 724–731. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167202289002
6.
BushmanB. J.BonacciA. M.PedersenW. C.VasquezE. A.MillerN. (2005). Chewing on it can chew you up: Effects of rumination on triggered displaced aggression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(6), 969–983. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.88.6.969
7.
CalmesC. A.RobertsJ. E. (2007). Repetitive thought and emotional distress: Rumination and worry as prospective predictors of depressive and anxious symptomatology. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 31(3), 343–356. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-006-9026-9
8.
Del VecchioT.JablonkaO.DiGiuseppeR.NottiJ.DavidO. (2017). Psychometric evaluation of the parent anger scale. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26(11), 3013–3025. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0824-3
9.
Del VecchioT.O’LearyS. G. (2008). Predicting maternal discipline responses to early child aggression: The role of cognitions and affect. Parenting: Science and Practice, 8(3), 240–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295190802204827
10.
DensonT. F.PedersenW. C.FrieseM.HahmA.RobertsL. (2011). Understanding impulsive aggression: Angry rumination and reduced self-control capacity are mechanisms underlying the provocation-aggression relationship. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(6), 850–862. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167211401420
11.
DixT. (1991). The affective organization of parenting: Adaptive and maladaptive processes. Psychological Bulletin, 110(1), 3–25. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.110.1.3
12.
DixT.GershoffE. T.MeunierL. N.MillerP. C. (2004). The affective structure of supportive parenting: Depressive symptoms, immediate emotions, and child-oriented motivation. Developmental Psychology, 40(6), 1212–1227. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.40.6.1212
13.
EnebrinkP.BjörnsdotterA.GhaderiA. (2013). The emotion regulation questionnaire: Psychometric properties and norms for Swedish parents of children aged 10-13 years. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 9(2), 289–303. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v9i2.535
14.
Flujas-ContrerasJ. M.García-PalaciosA.GómezI. (2021). Effectiveness of a web-based intervention on parental psychological flexibility and emotion regulation: A pilot open trial. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(6), 2958. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18062958
15.
GrossJ. J. (1998). Antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation: Divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(1), 224–237. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.1.224
16.
GrossJ. J.JohnO. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 348–362. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.2.348
17.
GrossJ. J.ThompsonR. A. (2007). Emotion regulation: Conceptual foundations. In GrossJ. J. (Ed.), Handbook of emotion regulation (pp. 3–24). The Guilford Press.
18.
HajalN. J.PaleyB. (2020). Parental emotion and emotion regulation: A critical target of study for research and intervention to promote child emotion socialization. Developmental Psychology, 56(3), 403–417. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000864
19.
HarringtonR.LoffredoD. A. (2010). Insight, rumination, and self-reflection as predictors of well-being. Journal of Psychology, 145(1), 39–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2010.528072
20.
HuL.BentlerP. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118
21.
KaitzM.MaytalH. (2005). Interactions between anxious mothers and their infants: An integration of theory and research findings. Infant Mental Health Journal, 26(6), 570–597. https://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.20069
22.
KobylińskaD.KusevP. (2019). Flexible emotion regulation: How situational demands and individual differences influence the effectiveness of regulatory strategies. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 72. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00072
23.
KohlhoffJ.HawesD. J.MenceM.RussellA. M. T.WedgwoodL.MorganS. (2016). Emotion regulation strategies and parenting practices among parents of children with clinic-referred conduct problems. Parenting, 16(4), 302–319. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295192.2016.1184942
24.
LeungD. W.SlepA. M. S. (2006). Predicting inept discipline: The role of parental depressive symptoms, anger, and attributions. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74(3), 524–534. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.74.3.524
25.
LorberM. F. (2012). The role of maternal emotion regulation in overreactive and lax discipline. Journal of Family Psychology: JFP: journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43), 26(4), 642–647. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029109
26.
LorberM. F.Del VecchioT.FederM. A.SlepA. M. S. (2017). A psychometric evaluation of the revised parental emotion regulation inventory. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26(2), 452–463. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-016-0578-3
27.
MaxwellS. E.ColeD. A. (2007). Bias in cross-sectional analyses of longitudinal mediation. Psychological Methods, 12(1), 23–44. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.12.1.23
28.
McLaughlinK. A.Nolen-HoeksemaS. (2011). Rumination as a transdiagnostic factor in depression and anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 49(3), 186–193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2010.12.006
29.
MeyerT. J.MillerM. L.MetzgerR. L.BorkovecT. D. (1990). Development and validation of the penn state worry questionnaire. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 28(6), 487–495. https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(90)90135-6
30.
MoreiraH.CanavarroM. C. (2018). The association between self-critical rumination and parenting stress: The mediating role of mindful parenting. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 27(7), 2265–2275. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1072-x
31.
MorrisA. S.CrissM. M.SilkJ. S.HoultbergB. J. (2017). The impact of parenting on emotion regulation during childhood and adolescence. Child Development Perspectives, 11(4), 233–238. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12238
32.
MurrayL.LauP. Y.ArtecheA.CreswellC.RussS.ZoppaL. D.MuggeoM.SteinA.CooperP. (2012). Parenting by anxious mothers: Effects of disorder subtype, context and child characteristics. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 53(2), 188–196. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2011.02473.x
Nolen-HoeksemaS. (2000). The role of rumination in depressive disorders and mixed anxiety/depressive symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109(3), 504–511. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.109.3.504
35.
Nolen-HoeksemaS.WiscoB. E.LyubomirskyS. (2008). Rethinking rumination. Perspectives on Psychological Science: A Journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 3(5), 400–424. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00088.x
36.
PinderhughesE. E.DodgeK. A.BatesJ. E.PettitG. S.ZelliA. (2000). Discipline responses: Influences of parents’ socioeconomic status, ethnicity, beliefs about parenting, stress, and cognitive-emotional processes. Journal of Family Psychology: JFP: journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43), 14(3), 380–400. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.14.3.380
37.
PinquartM. (2017). Associations of parenting dimensions and styles with externalizing problems of children and adolescents: An updated meta-analysis. Developmental Psychology, 53(5), 873–932. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000295
38.
PrikhidkoA.SwankJ. M. (2019). Examining parent anger and emotion regulation in the context of intensive parenting. The Family Journal, 27(4), 366–372. https://doi.org/10.1177/1066480719855371
39.
ReidJ. B.PattersonG. R.SnyderJ. J. (Eds.), (2002). Antisocial behavior in children and adolescents: A developmental analysis and model for intervention (1st ed.), American Psychological Association.
40.
RhoadesK. A.GriceC.Del VecchioT. (2017). Barriers to mothers’ implementation of non-harsh discipline techniques: Anger, impulsivity, and situational demands. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26(11), 3179–3191. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0801-x
41.
RhoadesK. A.O’LearyS. G. (2007). Factor structure and validity of the parenting scale. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology: The Official Journal for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, American Psychological Association, Division 53, 36(2), 137–146. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374410701274157
42.
RobinsonR.Cartwright-HattonS. (2008). Maternal disciplinary style with preschool children: Associations with children’s and mothers’ trait anxiety. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 36(1), 49–59. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1352465807003797
43.
RodriguezV. J.ShafferA. (2021). Validation of the regulating emotions in parenting scale (REPS): Factor structure and measurement invariance. Journal of Family Psychology: JFP: journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43), 35(4), 468–477. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000808
44.
RoseJ.RomanN.MwabaK.IsmailK. (2018). The relationship between parenting and internalizing behaviours of children: A systematic review. Early Child Development and Care, 188(10), 1468–1486. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2016.1269762
45.
RuegerS. Y.KatzR. L.RisserH. J.LovejoyM. C. (2011). Relations between parental affect and parenting behaviors: A meta-analytic review. Parenting, 11(1), 1–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295192.2011.539503
46.
ShayN. L.KnutsonJ. F. (2008). Maternal depression and trait anger as risk factors for escalated physical discipline. Child Maltreatment, 13(1), 39–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077559507310611
47.
TabachnickB. G.FidellL. S. (2013). Using multivariate statistics (6th ed.), Pearson.
48.
TrapnellP. D.CampbellJ. D. (1999). Private self-consciousness and the five-factor model of personality: Distinguishing rumination from reflection. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(2), 284–304. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.2.284
49.
WardA.LyubomirskyS.SousaL.Nolen-HoeksemaS. (2003). Can’t quite commit: Rumination and uncertainty. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(1), 96–107. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167202238375
WebbT. L.MilesE.SheeranP. (2012). Dealing with feeling: A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation. Psychological Bulletin, 138(4), 775–808. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027600
52.
WernerK.GrossJ. J. (2010). Emotion regulation and psychopathology: A conceptual framework. In Emotion regulation and psychopathology: A transdiagnostic approach to etiology and treatment (pp. 13–37). The Guilford Press.
53.
Zimmer-GembeckM. J.RudolphJ.KerinJ.Bohadana-BrownG. (2022). Parent emotional regulation: A meta-analytic review of its association with parenting and child adjustment. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 46(1), 63–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/01650254211051086
