Veronica Oro
Arizona State University
Veronica Oro is a graduate student at Arizona State University embarking on her 3rd year of study. Under the mentorship of Dr. Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant, she is developing expertise in the fields of child socio-emotional development and behavioral genetics broadly, with a focus on the intergenerational transmission of psychopathology.
R01HD079520 R01HD086085 Evidence demonstrates associations between parental self-efficacy and child negative emotionality (Coleman & Karraker, 2000), though research is needed to elucidate mechanisms. Parental emotional... [ view full abstract ]
R01HD079520
R01HD086085
Evidence demonstrates associations between parental self-efficacy and child negative emotionality (Coleman & Karraker, 2000), though research is needed to elucidate mechanisms. Parental emotional availability is a viable candidate as a mediator. It is a relational construct which captures parenting, like sensitivity, while also considering the contribution of the child (Biringen et al., 2000). We hypothesized that the association between self-efficacy and children’s negative emotionality would be mediated by emotional availability. Additionally, we hypothesized that emotional availability would demonstrate shared environmental influence and emotionality would demonstrate both genetic and shared environmental influences.
The sample included 222 twin pairs from the Arizona Twin Project (Lemery-Chalfant et al., 2013). Parent reports of self-efficacy (Parental Cognitions Toward the Infant Scale), emotional availability (Emotional Availability Scales) and negative emotionality (Child Behavior Questionnaire) were acquired at 12-, 30-months, and 5-years.
A multilevel model accounting for twin dependence was tested to determine whether emotional availability at 30 months mediated the relation between self-efficacy at 12 months and negative emotionality at 5 years. Results indicated that self-efficacy was negatively related to negative emotionality (β=-.31 (.10), p= .002) and positively related to emotional availability (β=.29 (.04), p< .001). Emotional availability, in turn, was negatively related to negative emotionality (β=-1.09 (.28), p< .001). Accounting for this relation rendered the association between self-efficacy and negative emotionality nonsignificant (β=-.25 (.19), p= .180), indicating significant mediation. Estimates of the genetic, shared-, and nonshared-environmental influence for emotional availability were .07, .88, and .05, and for negative emotionality were .52, .31, and .16, respectively.
This keener understanding of the relations among parental self-efficacy, emotional availability, and children’s negative emotionality and the genetic and environmental influences which underlie them stands to elucidate contributing factors to the parenting children receive and the outcomes they demonstrate.
