Parental emotion regulation: The role of parents' own childhood maltreatment

This chapter examines the specific challenges faced by individuals with a history of childhood maltreatment (CM) as they transition into parenthood. The transition to parenthood involves many challenges that require adjustment, such as adapting to one's own bodily changes (for the birthing parent), forging a parental identity, and attaching to the infant. Although these tasks may not be easy for any parent-to-be, those who have experienced maltreatment during their childhood may find them especially difficult. One crucial domain in which these early life experiences might influence their core parenting skills is the ability to emotionally regulate themselves as well as model positive emotional regulatory processes for their children. The author presents various perspectives to explain how these early life experiences of abuse and neglect affect parental emotion self-regulation and current parenting approaches. This chapter adds valuable tools to the parental toolbox of those with a history of CM and guides such parents on how their regulatory skills can be improved to better equip themselves to cope with potential parenting challenges and raise well-adjusted children.