Abstract
Objective
This study examined whether children’s distress during interactions with siblings and parents differed from distress during noninteractional situations in naturalistic home settings.
Background
Distress frequently occurs within sibling and parent–child exchanges, yet these contexts remain underexamined in naturalistic settings.
Methods
Participants included 53 preschool-aged children (M
child age = 50.47 months, SD = 9.6, 28 girls) and their parents (58% of mothers identified as White and non-Hispanic). Children were recorded for 16 hours using the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system. Approximately 10 distress episodes per child were coded for context, distress intensity, emotion regulation quality, and parental response quality. Multilevel models were used.
Results
Children showed greater difficulty recovering from distress during interactions with siblings and parents than during noninteractional situations. Mothers were more likely to respond both supportively and nonsupportively to distress during mother–child interactions, and fathers who responded to more father–child distress showed more nonsupportive responses.
Conclusion
Distress during parent–child and sibling interactions may be more emotionally challenging for young children than distress during noninteractional situations. Distress during parent–child interactions elicits more parental coaching but may also result in more negative exchanges.
Implications or Recommendations
Findings highlight the need for interventions targeting parent responses during real-time family interactions.