Post-Traumatic Stress, Mother's Emotion Regulation, and Parenting in Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence.

Post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are high among female survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV), and children of parents experiencing PTSS are at heightened risk for a wide range of emotional and behavioral problems. Parenting has significant influence on child adjustment, and although links have been found between parental psychopathology and maladaptive parenting, little is known about the factors that may explain this relation. The current study examines mother's emotion regulation (ER) as a factor influencing the relation between mother PTSS and parenting around children's emotions in a study sample of sixty-four female survivors of IPV and their 6- to 12-year-old children. Mothers reported on their own PTSS and their parenting. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was used as a psychophysiological index of mother's ER. Experiential components of mother's ER was also measured by observer coding of the Meta-Emotion Interview, a structured assessment that asks parents about their attitudes toward and experiences with emotions, including their regulation of emotions. Mother's RSA reactivity moderated the relation between PTSS and negative parenting. There was also a significant indirect relation between mothers' PTSS symptom severity and supportive parenting reactions through mothers' self-report of ER. Results suggest that mother's ER abilities represent factors that significantly affect associations between maternal PTSS and parent's emotion socialization practices. Implications for assessment and intervention with families exposed to the stress of IPV are discussed.