Subjects: Psychology >> Applied Psychology submitted time 2020-04-05
Abstract: Emotional and behavior problems including anxiety, depression, withdrawal, and attack are commonly occurred among adolescents. The perceptiveness and attitude of parents to their children’s emotional reaction, which is defined as the parental meta-emotion philosophy (PMEP), can affect the regulation of children's emotional and behavior problems. These influences are also distinct as the individual physiological factors. However, several questions are still understudied. Previous studies ignored the effect of father's meta-emotional philosophy on individual behavior problems. Domestic studies payed close attention to the preschool or school-age children other than to adolescent group. No conclusion was drawn on the relationship between parental emotional coaching and the externalizing problems of adolescents. Whether the relationship was affected by other regulatory factors need further analysis. The role of PMEP, on the other hand, may also vary in different cultures. In the current study, we attempt to explore the relationship between the PMEP and adolescents’ behavior problem and investigate the influence of adolescents’ vagus nerve function on this relationship. 224 adolescents aged from 12 to14 recruited from a middle school of Yinchuan and their parents were selected in the current study. The MP150 (16 channels) physiological multichannel apparatus was firstly used to record adolescents’ breathing and heart rate during the resting period and the mental arithmetic period. The baseline vagal tone and vagal suppression in task period were then calculated. Participants and their parents were asked to fill in questionnaires to measure the behavior problems of adolescents and the PMEP after the physiological measurement. The physiological data were analyzed offline using Acqknowledge software (version-4.3), and the physiological data and questionnaire data were imported into SPSS 20.0 for statistical analysis. Results and conclusions were as follows: (1) PMEP can predict adolescents' behavior problems: the more emotion coaching mothers have, the less internalizing and externalizing problems adolescents have; the more emotion dysfunction mothers have, the more internalizing and externalizing problems adolescents have; the more emotion noninvolvement mothers have, the more externalizing problems adolescent have; the more emotion coaching fathers have, the less internalizing problems adolescents have; the more emotion dysfunction fathers have, the more externalizing problems adolescents have. (2) PMEP in adolescents' problem behaviors is regulated by the vagus nerve: when adolescent's vagal tone was low, the more emotion noninvolvement the mothers have, the more externalizing problems adolescents have; when adolescent's vagal suppression was low, the more emotion dysfunction mothers have, the more internalizing and externalizing problems of adolescents.; When adolescents’ vagal suppression was low, the more emotion dysfunction fathers have, the more externalizing problems adolescents have. In summary, the rise of individual behavior problem is not only due to the effect of single factor, but also due to the result of the interaction between the outside and individual factors. It is suggested that we should investigate the occurrence and development of the individual behavior problems from the multiple perspectives of physical, psychological and social factors.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review