Nur Islamiah defends her PhD thesis

Title

‘Parental Roles on Children’s Emotion Regulation’.

Time and place

2 May 2024 at 9:30 am (CEST).

The defence will take place online on Zoom.

Click here to participate.
Passcode: 638765. 

Assessment committee

• Professor Stig Poulsen, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (chair)
  
  
• Associate Professor Patrick Bender, Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University, Denmark

Supervisors

• Professor Ingo Zettler, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen (principal supervisor)
  
  
• Associate Professor Sonja Breinholst, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen (co-supervisor)
  
  
• Assistant Professor Monika Walczak, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen (co-supervisor)

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to advance understanding of the parental role in children’s emotion regulation (ER). The thesis consists of three academic papers: two original studies and a systematic review. In the first study, mothers’ characteristics (i.e., psychopathology and metacognitions) and parenting practices were examined as predictors of children’s nine specific cognitive ER strategies in a community sample. The second study, a systematic review, was conducted to explore the potential role of fathers in the development of ER in typically developing children. The review included 43 studies that investigated a range of paternal factors influencing ER in their children. Finally, in the last study, fathers’ and mothers’ cognitions of child anxiety were examined as a potential predictor of emotion dysregulation in clinically anxious children. In sum, the findings of the thesis suggest that parents’ psychopathology and negative cognitions may be an important risk factor for lower ER or maladaptive cognitive ER strategies in their children. This thesis discusses the findings and implications of the three studies and suggests directions for future research.