Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ttngx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-28T05:29:05.107Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Examining the intergenerational transmission of parental invalidation: Extension of the biosocial model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2021

Stephanie S. M. Lee Open the ORCID record for Stephanie S. M. Lee [Opens in a new window] ,
Shian-Ling Keng  and
Ryan Y. Hong
Stephanie S. M. Lee*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Shian-Ling Keng
Affiliation:
Division of Social Sciences, Yale-NUS College, Singapore
Ryan Y. Hong
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore
*
Author for Correspondence: Stephanie S. M. Lee, Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, 9 Arts Link, Singapore 117570; E-mail: stephanielee@u.nus.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examined the intergenerational transmission of parental invalidation and whether parental difficulties in emotion regulation mediated the association between past experiences of invalidation and current invalidating parenting practices. We also aimed to investigate whether gender might influence the transmission of parental invalidation. We recruited a community sample of 293 dual-parent families (adolescent and their parents) based in Singapore. Parents and adolescents each completed measures of childhood invalidation, whereas parents additionally reported on their difficulties in emotion regulation. Results based on path analyses demonstrated that past parental invalidation experienced by fathers positively predicted current perceived invalidation by their children. The association between mothers’ childhood invalidation and current invalidating practices was fully mediated by mothers’ difficulties with emotion regulation. Further analyses revealed that parents’ current invalidating behaviors were not predicted by their past experiences of paternal or maternal invalidation. These findings point to the importance of considering the family invalidating environment as a whole when examining the influence of past experienced parental invalidation on emotion regulation and invalidating behaviors of second-generation parents. Our study provides empirical support for the intergenerational transmission of parental invalidation and highlights the need to address childhood experiences of parental invalidation in parenting programs.

Keywords

difficulties in emotion regulationgenderintergenerational transmissioninvalidationparenting
Type
Regular Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , February 2023 , pp. 24 - 34
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arroyo, A., Segrin, C., & Andersen, K. K. (2017). Intergenerational transmission of disordered eating: Direct and indirect maternal communication among grandmothers, mothers, and daughters. Body Image, 20, 107–115. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.01.001CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Assink, M., Spruit, A., Schuts, M., Lindauer, R., van der Put, C. E., & Stams, G. J. M. (2018). The intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment: A three-level meta-analysis. Child Abuse & Neglect, 84, 131–145. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.07.037CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Belsky, J., Jaffee, S. R., Sligo, J., Woodward, L., & Silva, P. A. (2005). Intergenerational transmission of warm-sensitive-stimulating parenting: A prospective study of mothers and fathers of 3-year-olds. Child Development, 76, 384–396. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2005.00852CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bornovalova, M. A., Huibregtse, B. M., Hicks, B. M., Keyes, M., McGue, M., & Iacono, W. (2013). Tests of a direct effect of childhood abuse on adult borderline personality disorder traits: A longitudinal discordant twin design. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 122, 180–194. doi:10.1037/a0028328CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Buckholdt, K. E., Parra, G. R., & Jobe-Shields, L. (2014). Intergenerational transmission of emotion dysregulation through parental invalidation of emotions: Implications for adolescent internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 23, 324–332. doi:10.1007/s10826-013-9768-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bussey, K., & Bandura, A. (1999). Social cognitive theory of gender development and differentiation. Psychological Review, 106, 676–713. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.106.4.676CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Butler, E. A., Lee, T. L., & Gross, J. J. (2007). Emotion regulation and culture: Are the social consequences of emotion suppression culture-specific? Emotion, 7, 30–48. doi:10.1037/1528-3542.7.1.30CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Capaldi, D. M., Pears, K. C., Patterson, G. R., & Owen, L. D. (2003). Continuity of parenting practices across generations in an at-risk sample: A prospective comparison of direct and mediated associations. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 31, 127–142. doi:10.1023/A:1022518123387CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Z., & Kaplan, H. B. (2001). Intergenerational transmission of constructive parenting. Journal of Marriage and Family, 63, 17–31. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2001.00017.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cinamon, R. G., & Rich, Y. (2002). Gender differences in the importance of work and family roles: Implications for work–family conflict. Sex Roles, 47, 531–541. doi:10.1023/A:1022021804846CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conger, R. D., Neppl, T., Kim, K. J., & Scaramella, L. (2003). Angry and aggressive behavior across three generations: A prospective, longitudinal study of parents and children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 31, 143–160. doi:10.1023/A:1022570107457CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crittenden, P. M. (1984). Sibling interaction: Evidence of a generational effect in maltreating infants. Child Abuse & Neglect, 8, 433–438. doi:10.1016/0145-2134(84)90024-3CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Denham, S. A. (2007). Dealing with feelings: How children negotiate the worlds of emotions and social relationships. Cognition, Brain, Behavior, 11, 1–48.Google Scholar
Department of Statistics Singapore. (2020). Population Dashboard, https://www.singstat.gov.sg/find-data/search-by-theme/population/population-and-population-structure/visualising-data/population-dashboardGoogle Scholar
Edlund, S. M., Carlsson, M. L., Linton, S. J., Fruzzetti, A. E., & Tillfors, M. (2014). I see you're in pain – the effects of partner validation on emotions in people with chronic pain. Scandinavian Journal of Pain, 6, 16–21. doi:10.1016/j.sjpain.2014.07.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, A., & Spinrad, T. L. (1998). Parental socialization of emotion. Psychological Inquiry, 9, 241–273. doi:10.1207/s15327965pli0904_1CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elam, K. K., Chassin, L., Eisenberg, N., & Spinrad, T. L. (2017). Marital stress and children's externalizing behavior as predictors of mothers’ and fathers’ parenting. Development and Psychopathology, 29, 1305–1318. doi:10.1017/S0954579416001322CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Erel, O., & Burman, B. (1995). Interrelatedness of marital relations and parent-child relations: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 118, 108–132. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.118.1.108CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fruzzetti, A. E., Shenk, C., & Hoffman, P. D. (2005). Family interaction and the development of borderline personality disorder: A transactional model. Development and Psychopathology, 17, 1007–1030. doi:10.1017/S0954579405050479CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gill, D., & Warburton, W. (2014). An investigation of the biosocial model of borderline personality disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 70, 866–873. doi:10.1002/jclp.22074CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gill, D., Warburton, W., & Beath, K. (2018). The specificity of the biosocial model to borderline traits. Clinical Psychologist, 22, 27–36. doi:10.1111/cp.12104CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gratz, K., & Roemer, L. (2004). Multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation: Development, factor structure, and initial validation of the difficulties in emotion regulation scale. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 26, 41–54. doi:10.1023/B:JOBA.0000007455.08539.94CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halpern, H. P., & Perry-Jenkins, M. (2016). Parents’ gender ideology and gendered behavior as predictors of children's gender-role attitudes: A longitudinal exploration. Sex Roles, 74, 527–542. doi:10.1007/s11199-015-0539-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammen, C., Hazel, N. A., Brennan, P. A., & Najman, J. (2012). Intergenerational transmission and continuity of stress and depression: Depressed women and their offspring in 20 years of follow-up. Psychological Medicine, 42, 931–942. doi:10.1017/S0033291711001978CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hong, R. Y., Tan, C. S., Lee, S. S. M., Tan, S., Tsai, F., Poh, X., … Zhou, Y. (2015). Interactive effects of parental personality and child temperament with parenting and family cohesion. Parenting, Science and Practice, 15, 92–118. doi:10.1080/15295192.2015.1020143CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hu, L. T., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modelling, 6, 1–55. doi:10.1080/10705519909540118CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IBM Corp. (2017). IBM SPSS statistics for Windows, version 25.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.Google Scholar
Keng, S., & Soh, C. Y. (2018). Association between childhood invalidation and borderline personality symptoms: Self-construal and conformity as moderating factors. Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, 5, 19. doi:10.1186/s40479-018-0096-6CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keng, S., & Wong, Y. Y. (2017). Association among self-compassion, childhood invalidation, and borderline personality disorder symptomatology in a Singaporean sample. Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, 4, 24. doi:10.1186/s40479-017-0075-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulik, L. (2002). Like-sex versus opposite-sex effects in transmission of gender role ideology from parents to adolescents in Israel. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 31, 451–457. doi:10.1023/A:1020263120774CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linehan, M. (1993). Cognitive-behavioral treatment of borderline personality disorder. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Lovejoy, M. C., Graczyk, P. A., O'Hare, E., & Neuman, G. (2000). Maternal depression and parenting behavior: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 20, 561–592. doi:10.1016/S0272-7358(98)00100-7CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lundberg, S. (2005). Sons, daughters, and parental behaviour. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 21, 340–356. doi:10.1093/oxrep/gri020CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madden, V., Domoney, J., Aumayer, K., Sethna, V., Iles, J., Hubbard, I., … Ramchandani, P. (2015). Intergenerational transmission of parenting: Findings from a UK longitudinal study. European Journal of Public Health, 25, 1030–1035. doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckv093CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCallum, M., & Goodman, S. H. (2019). A multimethod, multi-informant investigation of maternal validation and invalidation of female adolescents who engage in self-inflicted injury. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 87, 563–575. doi:10.1037/ccp0000411CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ministry of Community Development, Youth, and Sports. (2009). Fatherhood public perception survey. Singapore: Ministry of Community Development, Youth, and Sports.Google Scholar
Ministry of Social and Family Development. (2013). Survey on social attitudes of Singaporeans. Singapore: Ministry of Social and Family Development.Google Scholar
Morris, A. S., Silk, J. S., Steinberg, L., Myers, S. S., & Robinson, L. R. (2007). The role of the family context in the development of emotion regulation. Social Development, 16, 361–388. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00389.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mountford, V., Corstorphine, E., Tomlinson, S., & Waller, G. (2007). Development of a measure to assess invalidating childhood environments in the eating disorders. Eating Behaviors, 8, 48–58. doi:10.1016/j.eatbeh.2006.01.003CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perry, D. G., & Bussey, K. (1979). The social learning theory of sex differences: Imitation is alive and well. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1699–1712. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.37.10.1699CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prinzie, P., Stams, G. J. J. M., Deković, M., Reijntjes, A. H. A., & Belsky, J. (2009). The relations between parents’ big five personality factors and parenting: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 351–362. doi:10.1037/a0015823CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
R Development Core Team. (2018). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Retrieved from https://www.R-project.org/Google Scholar
Reeves, M., James, L. M., Pizzarello, S. M., & Taylor, J. E. (2010). Support for Linehan's biosocial theory from a nonclinical sample. Journal of Personality Disorders, 24, 312–326. doi:10.1521/pedi.2010.24.3.312CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reinelt, E., Stopsack, M., Aldinger, M., Ulrich, I., Grabe, H. J., & Barnow, S. (2013). Longitudinal transmission pathways of borderline personality disorder symptoms: From mother to child? Psychopathology, 47, 10–16. doi:10.1159/000345857CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robertson, C. D., Kimbrel, N. A., & Nelson-Gray, R. O. (2013). The invalidating childhood environment scale (ICES): Psychometric properties and relationship to borderline personality symptomatology. Journal of Personality Disorders, 27, 402–410. doi:10.1521/pedi_2012_26_062CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosseel, Y. (2012). Lavaan: An R package for structural equation modeling. Journal of Statistical Software, 48, 1–36. http://www.jstatsoft.org/v48/i02/CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, G., & Russell, A. (1987). Mother-child and father-child relationships in middle childhood. Child Development, 58, 1573–1585. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1987.tb03867.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sauer-Zavala, S. E., Geiger, P. J., & Baer, R. A. (2013). The effect of anger rumination in the relationship between borderline personality disorder symptoms and precursors. Journal of Personality Disorders, 27, 465–472. doi:10.1521/pedi_2013_27_098CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schmitt, D. P., Realo, A., Voracek, M., & Allik, J. (2008). Why can't a man be more like a woman? Sex differences in big five personality traits across 55 cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 168–182. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.94.1.168CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaffer, A., Burt, K. B., Obradović, J., Herbers, J. E., & Masten, A. S. (2009). Intergenerational continuity in parenting quality: The mediating role of social competence. Developmental Psychology, 45, 1227–1240. doi:10.1037/a0015361CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simons, R. L., Whitbeck, L. B., Conger, R. D., & Wu, C. (1991). Intergenerational transmission of harsh parenting. Developmental Psychology, 27, 159–171. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.27.1.159CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soenens, B., Vansteenkiste, M., & Van Petegem, S. (2015). Let us not throw out the baby with the bathwater: Applying the principle of universalism without uniformity to autonomy-supportive and controlling parenting. Child Development Perspectives, 9, 44–49. doi:10.1111/cdep.12103CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Song, J. H., & Trommsdorff, G. (2016). Linking maternal emotion socialization to boys’ and girls’ emotion regulation in Korea. Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts, 6, 47–57. doi: 10.5723/csac.2016.6.2.047CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sturrock, B. A., Francis, A., & Carr, S. (2009). Avoidance of affect mediates the effect of invalidating childhood environments on borderline personality symptomatology in a non-clinical sample. Clinical Psychologist, 13, 41–51. doi:10.1080/13284200902936927CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sturrock, B., & Mellor, D. (2014). Perceived emotional invalidation and borderline personality disorder features: A test of theory. Personality and Mental Health, 8, 128–142. doi:10.1002/pmh.1249CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thornberry, T. P., Freeman-Gallant, A., Lizotte, A. J., Krohn, M. D., & Smith, C. A. (2003). Linked lives: The intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 31, 171–184. doi:10.1023/A:1022574208366CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Ijzendoorn, M. H. (1992). Intergenerational transmission of parenting: A review of studies in nonclinical populations. Developmental Review, 12, 76–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, S., & Durbin, C. E. (2010). Effects of paternal depression on fathers’ parenting behaviors: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 167–180. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2009.10.007CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yan, J., Han, Z. R., & Li, P. (2016). Intergenerational transmission of perceived bonding styles and paternal emotion socialization: Mediation through paternal emotion dysregulation. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25, 165–175. doi:10.1007/s10826-015-0199-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Lee et al. supplementary material

Appendices S1-S2
Download Lee et al. supplementary material(File)
File 22.3 KB