Parent-child emotion dynamics in families presenting for behavioral parent training: Is there a link with child behavior, parenting, and treatment outcome?

Objective: Behavioral parent training (BPT) is the standard of care for early onset behavior disorders (BDs), however, not all families benefit. Emotion regulation (ER) is one potential mechanism underlying BPT outcomes, yet there are challenges in capturing intra- and interpersonal aspects of emotion regulation within parent-child interactions that are central to BPT. This study examined how vocally encoded emotional arousal unfolds during parent-child interactions and how parents and children influence each other's arousal (Aim 1), the links between these emotion dynamics, child behavior, and parenting at baseline (Aim 2), and BPT outcome (Aim 3).

Method: Families of children with BDs (N = 45) completed two interaction tasks and measures of parenting and child behavior. Parent-child dynamics of vocal fundamental frequency (f₀) were modeled using actor-partner interdependence models (APIMs) and coupled linear oscillators (CLOs).

Results: When considering relative levels of f₀ from one talk turn to the next (APIMs), parents and children showed intrapersonal regulation and synchronizing reactivity to each other's f₀. When considering the shape of oscillations (CLOs), parents and children showed intrapersonal regulation but no reactivity. Intrapersonal regulation of f₀ during the interaction was slowed for parents with more maladaptive parenting and children with more behavior problems at baseline.

Conclusions: This preliminary characterization of f0 in families presenting for BPT provides insights into the emotion dynamics potentially underlying parenting behavior and child behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).