Parents' Well-Being and Emotion Regulation During Infancy: The Mediating Effects of Coping

Abstract

New parents' emotional experiences and coping strategies vary by individual and contextual factors such that the efficacy of a coping strategy might depend on their context and the control a person has over each stressor. This is particularly true during the transition to parenthood, when there are numerous stressors parents have limited control over (e.g., sleepless nights, infant distress, and irregular feeding routines). The current study examines the associations between new parents' (n = 188; 53.23% fathers) perceived stress, mental well-being, coping strategies, and emotion regulation during the transition to parenthood through path analysis. Overall model fit was excellent and indicated that parents' perceived stress was negatively associated with mental well-being and active coping strategy usage, and positively associated with behavioral disengagement strategy usage and difficulties with emotion regulation. Interestingly, parents' mental well-being was positively associated with the use of both active coping and behavioral disengagement strategies (and had no direct association with emotion regulation). Finally, active coping was negatively associated, and behavioral disengagement was positively associated, with emotion regulation difficulties. Family therapists and other mental health practitioners could adjust assessment practices for new families, as the evidence presented calls for context-based assessments of adaptation and coping supports during the transition to parenthood.