Parental Empathic Accuracy during a Conflict Task: The Influence of Parental Childhood Maltreatment and Depression

Empathic Accuracy (EA) is an important skill in parenting. It promotes positive self- concept in adolescents and is a predictor for individual and family adjustment. Factors may influence parental EA, such as parental childhood maltreatment and parental or adolescent depression. Using a sample of 201 parents (55.2% mothers), this study measured with linear regression whether parental childhood maltreatment and parental depression contributed to parents misattributing their children’s negative emotions in the context of a conflict task. Adolescent depression was considered as a covariate. Parental childhood maltreatment, and depression of both adolescents and parents were measured using a self-report questionnaire. Parents (Mage = 49.31) and their adolescent child (Mage = 15.81) then participated in a video- recorded task, in which they were asked to solve a conflict. Afterwards, parents had to indicate how they thought their child was feeling on a 7-point Likert scale for positive...Show moreEmpathic Accuracy (EA) is an important skill in parenting. It promotes positive self- concept in adolescents and is a predictor for individual and family adjustment. Factors may influence parental EA, such as parental childhood maltreatment and parental or adolescent depression. Using a sample of 201 parents (55.2% mothers), this study measured with linear regression whether parental childhood maltreatment and parental depression contributed to parents misattributing their children’s negative emotions in the context of a conflict task. Adolescent depression was considered as a covariate. Parental childhood maltreatment, and depression of both adolescents and parents were measured using a self-report questionnaire. Parents (Mage = 49.31) and their adolescent child (Mage = 15.81) then participated in a video- recorded task, in which they were asked to solve a conflict. Afterwards, parents had to indicate how they thought their child was feeling on a 7-point Likert scale for positive and negative emotions during high affect moments in this task. The results suggested that parents who have experienced childhood maltreatment, but not parents who suffered from depression, tended to overestimate their children’s negative emotions during the conflict task, showing a negative bias. Additionally, when an adolescent was suffering from depression, parents tended to underestimate their negative emotions. These findings highlight that EA is an interactive process which may be influenced by different factors (e.g. parental childhood maltreatment, adolescent depression). This knowledge can make parents more aware of biases they might have towards the emotions of their children, and thereby improving their communicative and empathic skills.Show less

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Parental Empathic Accuracy during a Conflict Task: The Influence of Parental Childhood Maltreatment and Depression