Intergenerational transmission of emotion regulation in the framework of the emotional cascade model through childhood emotional invalidation

The current study aimed to investigate the intergenerational transmission of emotion regulation in the framework of the Emotional Cascade Model through perceived childhood emotional invalidation. In this context, the mediating roles of perceived childhood emotional invalidation and emotional cascades (rumination, thought suppression, catastrophizing) in the association between the emotion regulation difficulties of parents and the dysregulated behaviors (excessive reassurance-seeking, drinking to cope, NSSI, bulimia symptoms) of emerging adults were investigated through serial mediation analyses. The participants in the study consist of 148 emerging adults and parent dyads. The results revealed that perceived childhood emotional invalidation and thought suppression serially mediated the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties of parents and excessive reassurance-seeking, drinking to cope, and NSSI behaviors of emerging adults. Further, perceived childhood emotional invalidation and then catastrophizing played a serial mediating role between parents' emotion regulation difficulties and emerging adults' excessive reassurance-seeking behaviors. On the other hand, it was found that perceived childhood emotional invalidation and rumination did not have a serial mediating effect between the emotion regulation difficulties of parents and any of the dysregulated behaviors of emerging adults.