# The Transmission of Emotion Regulation in Traumatized Families

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT SCH OF MED/DNT · 2020 · $159,433

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
This K23 application describes a four-year mentored research and education plan that focuses on examining
family processes in the development of children’s emotion regulation within the context of intergenerational
interpersonal trauma exposure (victimization that occurs at the hands of another person). The candidate is a
trained clinical psychologist with expertise in childhood trauma and PTSD seeking to address gaps in her
training that will enable her to implement cutting edge dyadic research that will further the field’s understanding
of mechanisms involved in the development of, and protection against, childhood PTSD. Although numerous
links have been documented between parental and child posttraumatic stress reactions, the processes that
explain these associations are not well understood. Because interpersonal trauma exposure places both
children and adults at increased risk for problems with emotion dysregulation, parents’ emotion regulation, as
well as their ability to help their children develop effective emotion regulation skills (emotion socialization
parenting behaviors, ESPBs), may be two key mechanisms in this transmission. The proposed study aims to
elucidate these intrafamilial processes associated with the development of children’s emotion regulation in
order to better understand factors that might affect parents’ capacity to help their children overcome the effects
of trauma exposure. The candidate will recruit 9-12 year old children who have experienced interpersonal
trauma (n=80) and a parent who has also experienced interpersonal trauma. Families will participate in a multi-
method assessment of parent and child behavioral and physiological indicators of emotion regulation and
parent ESPBs during emotion-eliciting tasks. The study’s specific research aims are: (1) examine the potential
mediating role of parents’ ESPBs in the relationship between parent emotion regulation and child emotion
regulation; (2) examine within-person relationship and between-person effects among autonomic reactivity and
emotion regulation; (3) test the buffering effect of supportive ESPBs; and (4) among a small sub-sample
(n=20), examine the longitudinal stability of parents’ emotion regulation and ESPBs, and children’s emotion
regulation. The principal training objective for this award is for the candidate to gain expertise in the dyadic
biopsychosocial assessment of mechanisms involved in the intergenerational transmission of emotional
regulation and dysregulation. Specifically, a rigorous career development plan, comprised of coursework,
experiential learning, and mentoring, will address gaps in the candidate’s training in the areas of: (1)
observational coding techniques used to evaluate dyadic emotional interactions, (2) physiological indicators of
emotional reactivity, and (3) advanced statistical methods relevant to analyzing longitudinal, dyadic data. An
experienced mentoring team will lend their expertise and, togeth...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9895434
- **Project number:** 5K23HD094824-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT SCH OF MED/DNT
- **Principal Investigator:** Carolyn A. Greene
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $159,433
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-04-01 → 2022-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9895434

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9895434, The Transmission of Emotion Regulation in Traumatized Families (5K23HD094824-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9895434. Licensed CC0.

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