Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

8-2024

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph. D.

Department

Psychological and Brain Sciences

Degree Program

Clinical Psychology, PhD

Committee Chair

Bufferd, Sara

Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)

Rosen, Paul

Committee Member

Walter, Bernadette

Committee Member

Noles, Nicholaus

Committee Member

Cooper, Justin

Author's Keywords

ADHD; parental meta-emotion; social impairments; emotional impairments

Abstract

Children with elevated attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms are at increased risk for social and emotional problems compared to typically developing peers. Emerging research has suggested targeting parental emotion socialization practices to enhance socioemotional development among this population. Interventions have explored how targeting specific emotion socialization behaviors may promote emotional and social functioning for youth with ADHD; however, little research has evaluated how underlying parental attitudes may influence these behaviors and outcomes. Parental meta-emotion philosophy (PMEP) refers to an organized set of thoughts and beliefs on how parents view the purpose of emotions, expression of emotions, and how these beliefs are communicated to the child. Given that underlying attitudes are theorized to inform behaviors, understanding PMEP may be crucial to enhancing emotion socialization interventions. The present study sought to understand the relations between PMEP, child ADHD symptoms, and social and emotional functioning. Specifically, this study hypothesized that maternal PMEP would significantly estimate children’s emotion knowledge, emotion regulation, prosocial behavior, and socially competent problem-solving above and v beyond child ADHD symptoms. Fifty-seven children ages 6 – 8 years old with elevated ADHD symptoms and their mothers participated in the present study. Mothers completed a computerized diagnostic structured interview and questionnaires about PMEP and their child’s emotional, social, and functional impairment. Children completed a questionnaire about their emotion regulation and two tasks assessing emotion knowledge and social problem-solving. Bivariate analyses were examined to determine which covariates to include in the primary analyses. A hierarchical linear regression revealed that ADHD symptom severity, but not maternal PMEP or medication status, was significantly associated with child emotion regulation. No other significant relations between child ADHD symptom severity, maternal PMEP, or child social and emotional functioning were found. Methodological concerns, the conceptualization of emotion socialization processes, and regulatory deficits among children with ADHD symptoms were explored as potential explanations for the present study’s null results. Despite the null findings, the present study provokes intriguing questions regarding the nature of emotion socialization processes among children with elevated ADHD symptoms.

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