Infants’ style of emotion regulation with their mothers and fathers: concordance between parents and the contribution of father–infant interaction quality

Abstract

The concordance between infants' emotion regulation styles with different partners has not been consistently analysed nor have the relational correlates of such potential across-partners similarities. We explored these issues by assessing 10-month-olds' (59.6 percent boys) emotion regulation styles separately with mother and father and by evaluating mother-infant and father-infant interaction quality. The sample consisted of 50 low-risk families. Two home visits were conducted and similar procedures were adopted for each visit. Parent-infant interaction quality was assessed during daily routines and during free play; both parents independently completed a temperament questionnaire. Infant emotion regulation was assessed in a semi-structured problem-solving task: adaptive vs. maladaptive (under and over-regulation) styles. As predicted, infants' emotion regulation with their mothers and fathers were related. However, only father-infant interaction quality predicted infants' emotion regulation concordance: lower interaction quality was associated with maladaptive concordance compared with non-concordance and higher interaction quality was associated with adaptive concordance compared with non-concordance. Our results support the claim that by the end of the first year of life, infants use similar emotion regulation styles with mother and father and point to father-infant interaction as an important correlate of emotion regulation across-parents.