Parents’ and Toddlers’ Emotions and Behaviors
This project focused on emotions and behaviors among low-income adolescent and young adult mothers and their toddler-aged children. Young mothers were the focus of the research project because they face many challenges that heighten their risk for engaging in negative parenting practices. Examining the challenges of young parents in Detroit is especially important because Detroit had the highest percentage of births that were to teenage females among the 50 largest cities in the United States (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2009). For this project, mothers must have been age 21 or younger when their child was born. Although this study focuses on adolescent and young adult mothers, related research in our lab is incorporating fathers and the broader support network (e.g., grandparents).
When a mother agreed to participate in the study, we asked her to be involved in two visits. The first visit was at the lab at WSU when her child was approximately 18 months of age. The second visit was at the family’s home when the child was approximately 24 months of age. Each visit lasted about 90 minutes. During the laboratory visit on Wayne State’s campus, the mother participated in an interview, completed questionnaires, and participated in a series of laboratory-based tasks that assessed processes related to emotion regulation. The mother and child also participated in a video-taped toy clean-up task. The home visit involved questionnaires, free play with a variety of age-appropriate toys, a toy clean-up task, and an assortment of age-appropriate games and problem-solving tasks.
We also completed a follow-up assessment with these families when the child was approximately 36 months of age. The follow-up study focused on parent-child interaction, child self-regulation, and school readiness. This project was funded by an ongoing Career Development Award from NIMH to Dr. Trentacosta (K01 MH082926; Mentor: Marjorie Beeghly; Co-Mentors: Jenae Neiderhiser and Daniel Shaw).