The Role Of Parental Emotion Withdrawal And The Connections That Has On Toddlers ' Emotion Regulation Development Essay

A child who utilizes his/her affect as a coping mechanism is relying upon the ability to express or ventilate through emotion. He/she will require opportunities to share anxieties, fears, anger, sorrow, and grief, and have those emotions validated by the adults in his/her life.”

Children are very complex, unique and varied individuals whose genetics, connections and backgrounds all perform significant roles in their emotional development (Wilson, 2003). The genetic blueprint a child inherits from its parents may plot a course for development but the environment and the influences within can affect how the child is shaped, how they connect with and are perceived by others and how their emotions are or are not expressed. Wilson (2003) points out emotions as an experience that is linked to cognitive interpretation, context, subjective feeling, physical reaction and behavioural expression. Campos, Campos, and Barrett (1989) suggest emotions are processes of establishing, maintaining, or disrupting the relations between the person and the internal or external environment, when such relations are significant to the individual.

Emotion regulation involves intrinsic and extrinsic processing of monitoring and modifying emotional reactions in both positive or negative situations (Martins, 2012). In order for individuals to have the ability to regulate emotions, they must beware of their emotions. Although infants are unaware and lack the ability to regulate their emotions, it then becomes the role of a primary carer to nurture the infant, thus acting as a model for regulating emotions. Evidently, infants grow to reflect the ways in which their carers control and modify their emotions as well as social boundaries. Furthermore, emotion regulation is considered an important aspect of an individuals life as it 'can moderate emotions and keep them in a manageable range

Lewis (2013) explains the ability to control your emotions does not begin until a child nears the age of six (as cited in Berger, 2014, p. 276). The need to maintain control of feelings and emotions remains important throughout adulthood. It would not be normal for a 38-year-old lawyer to throw a temper tantrum in the courtroom because they did not win a case. Not everyone is great at controlling their emotions, but there is always room for improvement (Berger, 2014). A child is not born with this control, nor can one learn it on their own. Morris et al. (2007) discussed the importance of parents, teachers and other adults that may be in a child?s life to instruct and inform children of appropriate ways to manage their feelings for them to learn or develop over time (as cited in Berger, 2014, p. 276). It is the same aspect as manners. A child does not come out of the womb saying ?please? and ?thank you,? but must be taught to use such mannerisms. Eric Erikson explained that children believe they can achieve any goal just as long as they keep trying because their view of their abilities is not yet within reason (Berger, 2014). A child may see a fish breath underwater and believe they too can breathe while swimming

Within the outline of attachment theory, Mary Ainsworth was the first to provide a detailed description of maternal sensitivity. Maternal sensitivity is a mother 's ability to perceive and understand the meaning behind her infant 's behavioral signals, and to respond to them quickly and appropriately. In study with 73 mothers and their second-born child, stability and main-level differences between measures of maternal sensitivity across settings and over time were studied. Maternal sensitivity was considered at three and six months during bathing, free play on mother’s lap and the starting point and gathering episode of the Still Face Paradigm. Harsh discipline was predicted by maternal sensitivity at three months, which was fully mediated by maternal sensitivity at six months. The widespread attention for sensitive parenting behavior is certainly not without ground, since many studies have shown major relationships between maternal sensitivity and a variety of positive outcomes such as secure attachment, self-regulation, social functioning, and cognitive competence. What started with Ainsworth’s elaborate full-day observation developed into more well-organized methods used across a variety of settings ranging from natural daily routines to play and stress-encouraging patterns.

Ainsworth also interviewed the mother in order to learn more about her parenting style as well as her experiences growing up with her own mother. She came to the conclusion that three types of children exist—those who are secure in their relationship with their parents, those who are anxious-resistant, and those who are anxious-avoidant. She demonstrated that the infants began to convey "consistently different patterns of distress" (on separation) and protest (upon reunion with their mothers (Shaw, 414). Similarly, the mothers displayed "very consistent patterns of interactions" with their infants while free playing during the laboratory introduction sequence, as well as patterns of comforting the infant on reunion (Shaw, 414). Ainsworth correlated these patterns with infant-parent interactions in the home during the first year of life. For example, children who appeared secure in the strange situation typically had parents who were responsive to their needs while the insecure children often had parents who were insensitive or inconsistent in the care they provided (Fraley, 2).

Parenting and attachment styles influence the temperament during infancy and toddler years. Parenting styles are strategies and techniques that parents use during child rearing. Attachment refers to a secure emotional connection, such as a union among a mother and child. Temperament is the nature of an individual in which affects behavior. Parenting and attachment work hand in hand with influencing the temperament of the child. Three types of children are form upon identifying the characteristics of their behavior; the easy child, the difficult child and the slow-to-warm-up child (Berk, 2010). The easy child embrace new experiences and form consistent schedules. The difficult child is challenged by new experiences and often display negative reactions. The slow-to-warm-up child shy away from routine and gradually envelope new experiences. These characteristics of the child ultimately express their social-emotional development, which is influenced by their initial interaction with parents and caregivers. In example, the easy child’s parents provides high levels of trust, encouraging the infant with feeling secure. In return, the child feels as though the world is trustworthy, making is easier to face new experiences. This dictates the behavior they express toward others. Parenting and forms of attachment play an essential role in both the temperament and social-emotional development of the child. Furthermore, an analysis of the affects that authoritative and permissive

Wang, F., Cox, M. J., Mills-Koonce, R., & Snyder, P. (2015). Parental Behaviors and Beliefs, Child Temperament, and Attachment Disorganization. Family Relations, 64(2), 191-204.

Susie’s mother opened the door to let Molly, Susie’s babysitter, inside. Ten-month old Susie seemed happy to see Molly. Susie then observed her mother put her jacket on and Susie’s face turned from smiling to sad as she realized that her mother was going out. Molly had sat for Susie many times in the past month, and Susie had never reacted like this before. When Susie’s mother returned home, the sitter told her that Susie had cried until she knew that her mother had left and then they had a nice time playing with toys until she heard her mother’s key in the door. Then Susie began crying once again.

The concept of infant-mother attachment is as important to the child as the birth itself. The effect this relationship has on a child shall affect that child for its entire life. A secure attachment to the mother or a primary caregiver is imperative for a child’s development. Ainsworth’s study shows that a mother is responsive to her infant’s behavioral cues which will develop into a strong infant-mother attachment. This will result in a child who can easily, without stress, be separated from his mother and without any anxiety. Of course the study shows a child with a weak infant-mother relationship will lead to mistrust, anxiety, and will never really be that close with the mother. Without the

Young children are in a dyadic dance with their caregiver, taking cues, mirroring emotion and behavior and constructing reciprocity, therefore they are greatly affected by parental stress (Hughes 2012). Parental stress is troubling and the child will work to mitigate it. By seven or eight months of age, an infant will send purposeful signals bidding caregiver’s attendance to their need, to be picked up and communicate comfort needs (Sroufe, 2011). They will also be looking for coregulation signals from their caregiver as the infant’s neural networks are not yet scaffolded to this task therefore the infant is not skilled in regulating their own emotions (cite).

In this essay I am going to show my understanding of a child's early emotional development based on the psychoanalytical view of child development. I will show how emotional skills gained in the early years can be of a significant relevance to later life. I will show my understanding by illustrating it with the clinical material. Although I am focusing on the psychoanalytical approach to child development I believe that it is beneficial to present also some general background knowledge of child development.

In the book, “Raising An Emotional Intelligent Child” author John Gottman guide’s parent’s toward raising an intelligent child by teaching them about the awareness of their emotions. Parents are known to be emotional coaches, parents who get involved with their child’s feelings. They accept negative emotions as a fact of life and use emotional moments as opportunities for teaching their kids important life lessons and building closer relationships with them. Emotional intelligence controls impulses, delays gratification, motivate themselves, reading others social cues, coping with life’s ups and downs. Parenting requires intellect, but most importantly empathy. In parent- child interactions, most parents fall into two categories: parents who give their children guidance about the world of emotion and those who do not. There are 3 types of parents who fail to teach emotional intelligence: the dismissing parent, disapproving, and Laissez-Faire. Dismissing parents tend to disregard and ignore children’s negative emotions. Disapproving parents are critical of their children’s displays of negative feelings and may punish them for emotional expression. Lastly, Laissez-Faire parents, accept their children’s emotions and empathize with them, but fail to offer guidance or set limits on their children’s behavior.

Because self-esteem is influenced by so many different things (e.g. society, media, friends, etc…) it is very important that parents and caretakers take the proper steps in helping a child develop a strong sense of who they are (Nuttall, 1991). By the time a child reaches three years of age they have experienced a very wide range of emotions (Cluff, N.D.) Parents, teachers and caregivers will lay the foundation upon which a child emotionally develops (Cluff, N.D.). Positive emotional development is important for children because this will not only determine their ability to develop healthy relationships with their peers but also how to successfully deal with their own emotions (Cluff, N.D.). Many theorists agree that there is a connection between a child’s emotional levels and development; they also

In John Gottman’s, Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child, it is found that teaching children to regulate and understand their emotions is important in order to create an emotionally healthy generation. Emotional intelligence, which is referred to as an “IQ” of people and the world of feelings (Gottman 17), contributes to the success of life emotionally, socially, and mentally of oneself. According to Gottman, there are multiple contributing factors that influence a child’s emotional intelligence which are parents and their parenting style, parent’s emotional expression, a parent’s interest or relationship with the child specifically between father and child, and the influences of the parent’s relationship on the child. The