Emotions, thoughts and intentions are not simply concepts that live privately in our minds, but r... more Emotions, thoughts and intentions are not simply concepts that live privately in our minds, but rather affective states emanate from us and may influence those around us. We explored affect contagion in the context of one of the closest dyadic units, mother and infant. We initially separated mothers and infants and randomly assigned mothers to experience either a: 1) stressful positive-evaluation task; 2) stressful negative-evaluation task; or 3) non-stressful control task, and then reunited mothers and infants. Three notable findings were observed: 1) Infants' physiological reactivity mirrored mothers' reactivity engendered by the stress manipulation; 2) Infants whose mothers experienced social-evaluation compared to the control condition showed more avoidance towards strangers; 3) Following negative-evaluation, dyads exhibited greater physiological covariation, which increased over time. These findings suggest that mothers' stressful experiences are contagious to their infants and that close pairs, like mothers and babies, can reciprocally influence each other's dynamic physiological reactivity.
Children may be capable of understanding the value of emotion regulation strategies before they c... more Children may be capable of understanding the value of emotion regulation strategies before they can enlist these strategies in emotionevoking situations. This study was designed to extend understanding of children's judgment of the efficacy of alternative emotion regulation strategies. Children aged six and nine (N ¼ 97) were presented with illustrated storyboards of anger-and sadness-evoking situations and rated the effectiveness of eight emotion regulation strategies. Children endorsed some strategies on an emotion-specific basis: they rated problem-solving as more effective for anger, and seeking adult support and venting emotion as more effective for sadness. Younger children rated cognitively sophisticated emotion regulatory strategies comparably to older children, but they endorsed relatively ineffective strategies as more effective. Early evidence of gender differences was also apparent as girls reported emotion-focused strategies as more effective than boys did. These findings contribute to understanding children's nuanced estimates of the value of alternative strategies of emotion regulation based on emotion context, age, and gender.
This study examined the association between the security of attachment and processes influencing ... more This study examined the association between the security of attachment and processes influencing the development of emotion regulation in young children. A sample of 73 4 1/2-year-olds and their mothers were observed in an emotion regulation probe involving mild frustration for children, and mothers and children were later independently interviewed about how the child had felt. Fewer than half the mothers agreed with children's selfreports in the emotion they attributed to children (a lower rate than the concordance of observer ratings with children's selfreports), and higher mother-child concordance was associated with secure attachment and mother's beliefs about the importance of attending to and accepting their own emotions. Mother-child conversations about recent events evoking children's negative emotion were also analyzed. Children were less likely to avoid conversing about negative feelings when they were in secure attachments and when mothers were more validating of the child's perspective. Children's greater understanding of negative emotions was also significantly associated with higher motherchild concordance and less child conversational avoidance. Taken together, these findings underscore the multiple influences of attachment on emotion regulation and the importance of children's emotion understanding to these processes.
Emotions, thoughts and intentions are not simply concepts that live privately in our minds, but r... more Emotions, thoughts and intentions are not simply concepts that live privately in our minds, but rather affective states emanate from us and may influence those around us. We explored affect contagion in the context of one of the closest dyadic units, mother and infant. We initially separated mothers and infants and randomly assigned mothers to experience either a: 1) stressful positive-evaluation task; 2) stressful negative-evaluation task; or 3) non-stressful control task, and then reunited mothers and infants. Three notable findings were observed: 1) Infants' physiological reactivity mirrored mothers' reactivity engendered by the stress manipulation; 2) Infants whose mothers experienced social-evaluation compared to the control condition showed more avoidance towards strangers; 3) Following negative-evaluation, dyads exhibited greater physiological covariation, which increased over time. These findings suggest that mothers' stressful experiences are contagious to their infants and that close pairs, like mothers and babies, can reciprocally influence each other's dynamic physiological reactivity.
Children may be capable of understanding the value of emotion regulation strategies before they c... more Children may be capable of understanding the value of emotion regulation strategies before they can enlist these strategies in emotionevoking situations. This study was designed to extend understanding of children's judgment of the efficacy of alternative emotion regulation strategies. Children aged six and nine (N ¼ 97) were presented with illustrated storyboards of anger-and sadness-evoking situations and rated the effectiveness of eight emotion regulation strategies. Children endorsed some strategies on an emotion-specific basis: they rated problem-solving as more effective for anger, and seeking adult support and venting emotion as more effective for sadness. Younger children rated cognitively sophisticated emotion regulatory strategies comparably to older children, but they endorsed relatively ineffective strategies as more effective. Early evidence of gender differences was also apparent as girls reported emotion-focused strategies as more effective than boys did. These findings contribute to understanding children's nuanced estimates of the value of alternative strategies of emotion regulation based on emotion context, age, and gender.
This study examined the association between the security of attachment and processes influencing ... more This study examined the association between the security of attachment and processes influencing the development of emotion regulation in young children. A sample of 73 4 1/2-year-olds and their mothers were observed in an emotion regulation probe involving mild frustration for children, and mothers and children were later independently interviewed about how the child had felt. Fewer than half the mothers agreed with children's selfreports in the emotion they attributed to children (a lower rate than the concordance of observer ratings with children's selfreports), and higher mother-child concordance was associated with secure attachment and mother's beliefs about the importance of attending to and accepting their own emotions. Mother-child conversations about recent events evoking children's negative emotion were also analyzed. Children were less likely to avoid conversing about negative feelings when they were in secure attachments and when mothers were more validating of the child's perspective. Children's greater understanding of negative emotions was also significantly associated with higher motherchild concordance and less child conversational avoidance. Taken together, these findings underscore the multiple influences of attachment on emotion regulation and the importance of children's emotion understanding to these processes.
Uploads
Papers by Sara Waters