Individual Characteristics that Differentiate Change in Parent Emotion Regulation Skills Following Parent-Child Interaction Therapy

Abstract

"Child maltreatment (CM) is a substantial public health issue that often results in emotional and psychological impacts on victims and can stem from emotion regulation deficits in caregivers. Although Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is effective at reducing child-maltreating behavior and improving positive parenting strategies, little research has been conducted on whether or not it strengthens parents' emotion regulation skills in the process. This study utilized a behavioral measure of parent emotion regulation (the Emotional Go/No-Go task) to identify subgroups of 88 child welfare-involved parents receiving PCIT whose emotion regulation skills changed the most across treatment. An exploratory analysis was then conducted to identify pre-treatment predictors of change in parent emotion regulation scores. I investigated measures of parent stress, readiness for change, mental health (specifically depression and anxiety measures), and child behavior problem scores. Parents’ mental health and motivation to change were found to significantly predict high changes in parents' reaction time to angry and fearful emotions. Analyzing the predictors that differentiate at-risk parents’ response to PCIT treatment, particularly in terms of their emotion regulation skills is vital in the current efforts to provide effective interventions and understand better how to match individual parents to effective treatments that will prevent CM."