Erika Lunkenheimer
Pennsylvania State University, Psychology, Faculty Member
- Colorado State University, Human Development and Family Studies, Faculty Memberadd
- Self-regulation, Parent Child Interaction, Parent Child Relationships, Child Maltreatment, Child Maltreatment Prevention, Risk factors for child maltreatment, and 7 moreEmotion Regulation, Family Structures and Dynamics, Family Dynamics, Parenting, Parental Behavior, Dynamical Systems, and Dynamic Systems Theoryedit
The repair of difficult parent–child interactions is a marker of healthy functioning in infancy, but less is known about repair processes during early childhood. We used dynamic systems methods to investigate dyadic repair in mothers and... more
The repair of difficult parent–child interactions is a marker of healthy functioning in infancy, but less is known about repair processes during early childhood. We used dynamic systems methods to investigate dyadic repair in mothers and their 3-year-old children (N = 96) and its prediction of children’s emotion regulation and behavior problems at a 4-month follow-up. Mothers and children completed free play and challenging puzzle tasks. Repair was operationalized as the conditional probability of moving into a dyadic adaptive behavior region after individual or dyadic maladaptive behavior (e.g., child noncompliance, parental criticism). Overall, dyads repaired approximately half their maladaptive behaviors. A greater likelihood of repair during the puzzle task predicted better child emotion regulation and fewer behavior problems in preschool. Results suggest dyadic repair is an important process in early childhood and provide further evidence for the connection between parent–child coregulation and children’s developing regulatory capacities. Implications for family-based interventions are discussed.
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The goal was to advance understanding of how adolescent conflict appraisals contribute uniquely, and in combination with interparental conflict behavior, to individual differences in adolescent physiological reactivity. Saliva samples... more
The goal was to advance understanding of how adolescent conflict appraisals contribute uniquely, and in combination with interparental conflict behavior, to individual differences in adolescent physiological reactivity. Saliva samples were collected from 153 adolescents (52% female; ages 10-17 yrs) before and after the Trier Social Stress Test. Saliva was assayed for cortisol and alpha-amylase (sAA). Results revealed interactive effects between marital conflict and conflict appraisals. For youth who appraised parental conflict negatively (particularly as threatening), negative marital conflict predicted dampened reactivity; for youth who appraised parental conflict less negatively, negative marital conflict predicted heightened reactivity. These findings support the notion that the family context and youth appraisals of family relationships are linked with individual differences in biological sensitivity to context.
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Objective. Parent-child coercive cycles have been associated with both rigidity and inconsistency in parenting behavior. To explain these mixed findings, we examined real-time variability in maternal responses to children’s off-task... more
Objective. Parent-child coercive cycles have been associated with both rigidity and inconsistency in parenting behavior. To explain these mixed findings, we examined real-time variability in maternal responses to children’s off-task behavior to determine whether this common trigger of the coercive cycle (responding to child misbehavior) is associated with rigidity or inconsistency in parenting. We also examined the effects of risk factors for coercion (maternal hostility, maternal depressive symptoms, child externalizing problems, and dyadic negativity) on patterns of parenting. Design. Mother-child dyads (N = 96; M child age = 41 months) completed a difficult puzzle task, and observations were coded continuously for parent (e.g., directive, teaching) and child behavior (e.g., on-task, off-task). Results. Multilevel continuous-time survival analyses revealed that parenting behavior is less variable when children are off-task. However, when risk factors are higher, a different profile emerges. Combined maternal and child risk is associated with markedly lower variability in parenting behavior overall (i.e., rigidity) paired with shifts towards higher variability specifically when children are off-task (i.e., inconsistency). Dyadic negativity (i.e., episodes when children are off-task and parents engage in negative behavior) is also associated with higher parenting variability. Conclusions. Risk factors confer rigidity in parenting overall, but in moments when higher-risk parents must respond to child misbehavior, their parenting becomes more variable, suggesting inconsistency and ineffectiveness. This context-dependent shift in parenting behavior may help explain prior mixed findings and offer new directions for family interventions designed to reduce coercive processes.
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Researchers have argued for more dynamic and contextually relevant measures of regulatory processes in interpersonal interactions. In response, we introduce and examine the effectiveness of a new task, the Parent-Child Challenge Task,... more
Researchers have argued for more dynamic and contextually relevant measures of regulatory processes in interpersonal interactions. In response, we introduce and examine the effectiveness of a new task, the Parent-Child Challenge Task, designed to assess the self-regulation and coregulation of affect, goal-directed behavior, and physiology in parents and their preschoolers in response to an experimental perturbation. Concurrent and predictive validity was examined via relations with children’s externalizing behaviors. Mothers used only their words to guide their 3-year-old children to complete increasingly difficult puzzles in order to win a prize (N = 96). A challenge condition was initiated mid-way through the task with a newly introduced time limit. The challenge produced decreases in parental teaching and dyadic behavioral variability and increases in child negative affect and dyadic affective variability, measured by dynamic systems-based methods. Children rated lower on externalizing showed respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) suppression in response to challenge, whereas those rated higher on externalizing showed RSA augmentation. Additionally, select task changes in affect, behavior, and physiology predicted teacher-rated externalizing behaviors four months later. Findings indicate the Parent-Child Challenge Task was effective in producing regulatory changes and suggest its utility in assessing biobehavioral self-regulation and coregulation in parents and their preschoolers.
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The relationship between parent and child is an active, self-organizing system in which recurring patterns emerge over time from parent-child interactions. “Coregulation” is one term used to describe the functional operations of this... more
The relationship between parent and child is an active, self-organizing system in which recurring patterns emerge over time from parent-child interactions. “Coregulation” is one term used to describe the functional operations of this dynamic system, such that the parent influences the child’s emotion, behavior, and physiology in real time, and the child in turn influences these processes in the parent. Accordingly, a dynamic systems-based method is useful in analyzing these processes. State Space Grids (SSGs; Lewis, Lamey, & Douglas, 1999) are one method that has been used effectively to visually depict and quantify patterns of real-time dyadic interaction and how they move about the “state space,” or repertoire of possible behaviors for a dyad. In this presentation, we will draw from our own studies as well as others in the research literature to highlight the advantages and limitations of the SSG method for studying regulatory processes, particularly parent-child coregulation.
The promotion of children’s mental health is a crucial goal, one that is beset with many challenges that Stuart Shanker has delineated well in his article, “In Search of the Pathways that Lead to Mentally Healthy Children.” When we study... more
The promotion of children’s mental health is a crucial goal, one that is beset with many challenges that Stuart Shanker has delineated well in his article, “In Search of the Pathways that Lead to Mentally Healthy Children.” When we study the etiology of a child’s developmental disorder, or attempt to alter a developmental trajectory that has gone awry, we face a complex playing field. The child is a moving target, one in which growth processes in real time (seconds or hours) and developmental time (months or years) are continually interacting and changing. We work with individual differences in children’s starting points and developmental timing, as well as differences in the environmental contingencies that shape these trajectories. We must also account for how this dynamic interplay unfolds across
the child’s various developmental domains (e.g., social, cognitive), relationships, and physical settings.
the child’s various developmental domains (e.g., social, cognitive), relationships, and physical settings.
This prospective longitudinal study focused on self-regulatory, social–cognitive, and parenting precursors of individual differences in children’s peer-directed aggression at early school age. Participants were 199 3-year-old boys and... more
This prospective longitudinal study focused on self-regulatory, social–cognitive, and parenting precursors of individual differences in children’s peer-directed aggression at early school age. Participants were 199 3-year-old boys and girls who were reassessed following the transition to kindergarten (5.5–6 years).
Peer aggression was assessed in preschool and school settings using naturalistic observations and teacher reports. Children’s self-regulation abilities and theory of mind understanding were assessed during a laboratory visit, and parenting risk (corporal punishment and low warmth/responsiveness) was assessed using interview-based and questionnaire measures. Individual differences in children’s peer aggression were moderately stable across the preschool to school transition. Preschool-age children who manifested high levels of aggressive peer interactions also showed lower levels of self-regulation and theory of mind
understanding, and experienced higher levels of adverse parenting than others. Our main finding was that early corporal punishment was associated with increased levels of peer aggression across the transition from preschool to school, as was the interaction between low maternal emotional support and children’s early delays in theory of mind understanding. These data highlight the need for family-directed preventive efforts during the early preschool years.
Peer aggression was assessed in preschool and school settings using naturalistic observations and teacher reports. Children’s self-regulation abilities and theory of mind understanding were assessed during a laboratory visit, and parenting risk (corporal punishment and low warmth/responsiveness) was assessed using interview-based and questionnaire measures. Individual differences in children’s peer aggression were moderately stable across the preschool to school transition. Preschool-age children who manifested high levels of aggressive peer interactions also showed lower levels of self-regulation and theory of mind
understanding, and experienced higher levels of adverse parenting than others. Our main finding was that early corporal punishment was associated with increased levels of peer aggression across the transition from preschool to school, as was the interaction between low maternal emotional support and children’s early delays in theory of mind understanding. These data highlight the need for family-directed preventive efforts during the early preschool years.
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Parent-child dyadic rigidity and negative affect contribute to children’s higher levels of externalizing problems. The present longitudinal study examined whether the opposite constructs of dyadic flexibility and positive affect... more
Parent-child dyadic rigidity and negative affect contribute to children’s higher levels of externalizing problems. The present longitudinal study examined whether the opposite constructs of dyadic flexibility and positive affect predicted lower levels of externalizing behavior problems across the early childhood period. Mother-child (N = 163) and father-child (n = 94) dyads engaged in a challenging block design task at home when children were three years old. Dynamic systems methods were used to derive dyadic positive affect and three indicators of dyadic flexibility (range, dispersion, and transitions) from observational coding. We hypothesized that the interaction between dyadic flexibility and positive affect would predict lower levels of externalizing problems at age five and a half years as rated by mothers and teachers, controlling for stability in externalizing problems, task time, child gender, and the child’s effortful control. The hypothesis was supported in predicting teacher ratings of child externalizing from both mother-child and father-child interactions. There were also differential main effects for mothers and fathers: mother-child flexibility was detrimental and father-child flexibility was beneficial for child outcomes. Results support the inclusion of adaptive and dynamic parent-child coregulation processes in the study of children’s early disruptive behavior.
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The study of parent-child relations is an active area of inquiry given that it plays a role in both child and adult (parent) development and has implications for the broader family system and society as a whole (Bornstein, 2005; Collins,... more
The study of parent-child relations is an active area of inquiry given that it plays a role in both child and adult (parent) development and has implications for the broader family system and society as a whole (Bornstein, 2005; Collins, Maccoby, Steinberg, Hetherington & Bornstein, 2000). Research on parent-child relations has important implications that range from basic (e.g., effects on child development) to applied (e.g., optimal techniques in family intervention). Yet the benefits of this research are constrained by the quality of employed methods and the conclusions that can or cannot be drawn as a result. Some methodological constraints have plagued this field from the outset, while others have emerged more recently, stemming from the difficulty inherent in developing methods that capture the complexity of contemporary conceptualizations of parenting and parent-child relations. As argued by Bornstein (2005; pp. 311-312), ‘the family generally, and parenting specifically, are today in a greater state of flux, question, and re-definition than perhaps ever before.’ Accordingly, it has become increasingly important to develop, refine, and apply methods that effectively capture the complexity of parenting and parent-child relations. As such, the papers in this special issue fall under three themes. The first theme is exemplified by three papers that use novel measures to address methodological challenges that have plagued this field for decades. The second theme is represented by three papers that utilize analytic approaches that capture the complexity of dynamic and dyadic interaction patterns between parent and child. The third theme is featured by two papers that leverage methodological and analytic approaches to disentangle effects of influence within and across families.
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The goal of the current study was to examine conflict appraisals and diurnal cortisol production as mediators of the robust association between marital conflict and adolescent adjustment problems. Parents reported their marital conflict... more
The goal of the current study was to examine conflict appraisals and diurnal cortisol production as mediators of the robust association between marital conflict and adolescent adjustment problems. Parents reported their marital conflict and were observed engaging in a marital conflict discussion; they also reported adolescent internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Adolescents (N=105, 52% female, 10–17 years of age) appraised their parents’ marital conflict and reported their internalizing and externalizing behaviors. After the laboratory visit, adolescents provided four saliva samples on each of 2 consecutive days to assess diurnal cortisol production. More-negative marital conflict predicted more self-blame for parental conflict, which in turn predicted less robust decreases in cortisol across the day. Further, this flattened cortisol production pattern mediated the relationship between greater self-blame for parental conflict and adolescents’ elevated internalizing behaviors. Feeling responsible for parental conflict appears to be particularly damaging in terms of physiological regulation and adjustment, and may therefore be a particularly useful intervention target.
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Resilience can be defined as establishing equilibrium subsequent to disturbances to a system caused by significant adversity. When families experience adversity or transitions, multiple regulatory processes may be involved in establishing... more
Resilience can be defined as establishing equilibrium subsequent to disturbances to a system caused by significant adversity. When families experience adversity or transitions, multiple regulatory processes may be involved in establishing equilibrium, including adaptability, regulation of negative affect, and effective problem-solving skills. The authors’ resilience-as-regulation perspective integrates insights about the regulation of individual development with processes that regulate family systems. This middle-range theory of family resilience focuses on regulatory processes across levels that are involved in adaptation: whole-family systems such as routines and sense of coherence; coregulation of dyads involving emotion regulation, structuring, and reciprocal influences between social partners; and individual self-regulation. Insights about resilience-as regulation are then applied to family-strengthening interventions that are designed to promote adaptation to adversity. Unresolved issues are discussed in relation to resilience-as-regulation in families, in particular how risk exposure is assessed, interrelations among family regulatory mechanisms, and how families scaffold the development of children’s resilience.
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Natural mentors have been shown to help improve psychological and educational outcomes of youth, and may serve an important role for youth experiencing risk in the home. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to... more
Natural mentors have been shown to help improve psychological and educational outcomes of youth, and may serve an important role for youth experiencing risk in the home. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), we investigated the associations between natural mentors during youth and income during early adulthood, including how these relations were moderated by the absence of a father figure and race. We also estimated the lifetime economic benefits to having a natural mentor. The presence of a natural mentor alone did not have a significant impact on annual earnings during adulthood. However, youth without a father but who had a male mentor earned significantly more, on average, than those without a male mentor. These effects were more pronounced in a subsample of African American youth. The net present value of total lifetime benefits to having a male natural mentor was approximately $190,000 for all fatherless youth and $458,000 for African American fatherless youth. These results suggest that natural mentors play a crucial role in economic outcomes for youth, which may vary by sociodemographic factors.
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Families are often conceptualized as continually evolving, relational systems (Cox & Paley, 1997; Minuchin, 1985). Individual members influence and are influenced by all other members. These reciprocal relations coalesce into family-level... more
Families are often conceptualized as continually evolving, relational systems (Cox & Paley, 1997; Minuchin, 1985). Individual members influence and are influenced by all other members. These reciprocal relations coalesce into family-level symbiotic processes and are the core of study in family systems research and therapy (see Lunkenheimer et al., 2012). Wohlwill (1991) noted that, “. . . what [reciprocal relationships] would call for are methodologies that allow one to model the interpatterning between two [or more] sets of processes each of which is undergoing change, in part as a function of the other . . . The closest approach to this kind of modeling that is indicated for this purpose are probably some of the models from the field of ecology and similar systems-analytical work” (p. 128). Following this suggestion we began exploring how the theoretical and analytical approaches used in ecology relate to the study of person-context transactions and longitudinal structural equation models (Ram & Nesselroade, 2007; Ram & Pedersen, 2008). Here we extend our thinking to the modeling of family systems.
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Predictable patterns in early parent-child interactions may help lay the foundation for how children learn to self-regulate. The present study examined contingencies between maternal teaching and directives and child compliance in... more
Predictable patterns in early parent-child interactions may help lay the foundation for how children learn to self-regulate. The present study examined contingencies between maternal teaching and directives and child compliance in mother-child problem-solving interactions at age 3.5 and whether they predicted children's behavioral regulation and dysregulation (inhibitory control and externalizing behaviors) as rated by mothers, fathers, and teachers at a 4-month follow-up (N = 100). The predictive utility of mother- and child-initiated contingencies was also compared to that of frequencies of individual mother and child behaviors. Structural equation models revealed that a higher probability that maternal directives were followed by child compliance predicted better child behavioral regulation, whereas the reverse pattern and the overall frequency of maternal directives did not. For teaching, stronger mother- and child-initiated contingencies and the overall frequency of maternal teaching all showed evidence for predicting better behavioral regulation. Findings depended on which caregiver was rating child outcomes. We conclude that dyadic measures are useful for understanding how parent-child interactions impact children's burgeoning regulatory abilities in early childhood.
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Lower levels of parent-child affective flexibility indicate risk for children's problem outcomes. This short-term longitudinal study examined whether maternal depressive symptoms were related to lower levels of dyadic affective... more
Lower levels of parent-child affective flexibility indicate risk for children's problem outcomes. This short-term longitudinal study examined whether maternal depressive symptoms were related to lower levels of dyadic affective flexibility and positive affective content in mother-child problem-solving interactions at age 3.5 years (N=100) and whether these maternal and dyadic factors predicted child emotional negativity and behavior problems at a 4-month follow-up. Dyadic flexibility and positive affect were measured using dynamic systems-based modeling of second-by-second affective patterns during a mother-child problem-solving task. Results showed that higher levels of maternal depressive symptoms were related to lower levels of dyadic affective flexibility, which predicted children's higher levels of negativity and behavior problems as rated by teachers. Mothers' ratings of child negativity and behavior problems were predicted by their own depressive symptoms and individual child factors, but not by dyadic flexibility. There were no effects of dyadic positive affect. Findings highlight the importance of studying patterns in real-time dyadic parent-child interactions as potential mechanisms of risk in developmental psychopathology.
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Familial emotion socialization practices relate to children's emotion regulation (ER) skills in late childhood, however, we have more to learn about how the context and structure of these interactions relates to individual differences in... more
Familial emotion socialization practices relate to children's emotion regulation (ER) skills in late childhood, however, we have more to learn about how the context and structure of these interactions relates to individual differences in children's ER. The present study examined flexibility and attractors in family emotion socialization patterns in three different conversational contexts and their relation to ER in 8-12 year olds. Flexibility was defined as dispersion across the repertoire of discrete emotion words and emotion socialization functions (emotion coaching, dismissing, and elaboration) in family conversation, whereas attractors were defined as the average duration per visit to each of these three emotion socialization functions using state space grid analysis. It was hypothesized that higher levels of flexibility in emotion socialization would buffer children's ER from the presence of maladaptive attractors, or the absence of adaptive attractors, in family em...
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This article examines development in children with neurogenetic disorders in the context of dynamic systems theory. Use of the dynamic systems framework enables researchers to view development in neurogenetic disorders as an ongoing... more
This article examines development in children with neurogenetic disorders in the context of dynamic systems theory. Use of the dynamic systems framework enables researchers to view development in neurogenetic disorders
as an ongoing process of self-organization in a complex system with many interacting components. We present a review of three principles of self-organization from a dynamic systems framework—attractor states, developmental cascades, and phase transitions—and explore how these principles may inform the study of phenotypic development in children with
neurogenetic disorders. Implications for future work on development and behavioral phenotypes in this population are discussed.
as an ongoing process of self-organization in a complex system with many interacting components. We present a review of three principles of self-organization from a dynamic systems framework—attractor states, developmental cascades, and phase transitions—and explore how these principles may inform the study of phenotypic development in children with
neurogenetic disorders. Implications for future work on development and behavioral phenotypes in this population are discussed.
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This study was a prospective 2-year longitudinal investigation of associations between negative maternal parenting and disruptive child behavior across the preschool to school transition. Our main goals were to 1) determine the direction... more
This study was a prospective 2-year longitudinal investigation of associations between negative maternal parenting and disruptive child behavior across the preschool to school transition. Our main goals were to 1) determine the direction of association between early maternal negativity and child disruptive behaviors across this important developmental transition and 2) examine whether there would be different patterns of associations for boys and girls. Participants were 235 children (111 girls; T1; M = 37.7months, T2; M = 63.4months) and their mothers and teachers. Observational and multi-informant ratings of child disruptive behavior showed differential patterns of stability and associations with measures of parenting risk. Results indicated bidirectional and interactive contributions of externalizing behavior and negative parenting across time. Results also indicated that risk mechanisms operate similarly for both sexes. Findings support transactional models of disruptive child behavior that highlight the joint contributions of parents and children.