The Role of Socio-Economic Status, Mother’s Psychopathology, Reflective Functioning and Emotion Socialization on Toddlers’ Behavior Problems_abstract

Cyprus Turkish Journal of Psychiatry & Psychology Vol.4 Issue.1

Doi:10.35365/ctjpp.22.1.01

RESEARCH ARTICLE / ARAŞTIRMA YAZISI

The Role of Socio-Economic Status, Mother’s Psychopathology, Reflective Functioning and Emotion Socialization on Toddlers’ Behavior Problems

Sosyoekonomik Durumun, Anne Psikopatolojisinin, Yansıtıcı İşleyişin ve Duygu Sosyalleştirmenin Erken Çocukluk Döneminde Gözlenen Davranış Problemlerindeki Rolü

Afra Selcen Taşdelen¹, Asiye Kumru², Gizem Arıkan³

Abstract:

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationships between socio-economic status (SES), mother’s psychological symptoms, maternal reflective functioning, and mother’s use of emotional socialization practices and child behavioral problems during toddlerhood. The study also aimed to examine sex and age differences on the display of behavior problems of toddlers. Mothers who had children between the ages 1 to 3 and lived in different cities of Turkey (N = 534) participated in the study. The mothers were asked to complete a package of scales consisting of demographic form, Brief Symptom Inventory, Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, Coping with Toddler Negative Emotions Scale, and Child Behavior Checklist. Based on the mothers’ reports, the results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that SES, maternal symptoms, and mother’s use of unsupportive emotion socialization behavior predicted toddler’s externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. Also, there was a significant age and sex differences on the child’ externalizing behavior problems with boys scoring higher than girls and older age children displaying more externalizing behavior problems than the younger ones. However, contrary to our expectations, mother’s supportive emotion socialization and reflective functioning didn’t predict child behavior problems. Overall, the present findings provide further support to family process model in predicting child behavior problems.

Keywords: Behavior problem, psychopathology, SES, reflective functioning, emotion socialization

¹ MSc, Özyeğin University, Applied Developmental Psychology Program, Ankara-Turkey, Orcid İd: 0000-0001-9842-3906

² Prof, Özyegin Univesity, Faculty of Social Sciences, Psychology Department, Ankara-Turkey, Orcid İd; 0000-0002-1514-4248

³ Asist. Prof., Özyegin Univesity, Faculty of Social Sciences, Psychology Department, Ankara-Turkey, Orcid İd; 0000-0003-2961-6426

Address of Correspondence/Yazışma Adresi: Afra Selcen Taşdelen, Özyeğin University, Applied Developmental Psychology Program, İstanbul, Turkey, E-mail: afraselcen@gmail.com

Date of Received/Geliş Tarihi: 17.09.2021, Date of Acceptance/Kabul Tarihi: 17.11.2021, Date of Online Publication/Çevirimiçi Yayın Tarihi: 09.03.2022

Citing/Referans Gösterimi: Taşdelen, A. S., Kumru, A. & Arıkan, G.  (2022). The Role of Socio-Economic Status, Mother’s Psychopathology, Reflective Functioning and Emotion Socialization on Toddlers’ Behavior Problems, Cyprus Turkish Journal of Psychiatry & Psychology, 4(1): 3-12

© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Cyprus Mental Health Institute / Cyprus Turkish Journal of Psychiatry and Psychology (www.ktppdergisi.com). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/