Emotion regulation among African American infants and their coparents in the context of triangular interactions at 12 months post-partum.

Emotion regulation (ER) during infancy is largely interpersonal, with dyadic studies of mutual regulation revealing how interactions are co-constructed moment by moment. However infant ER in triadic (father-mother-infant) context, the most common context for infant-father engagement during the first year, has rarely been considered. This report presents a new observational system, measuring infant triangular emotion regulation (MITER), for assessing ER strategies in three-person family interactions. Sixty-nine African American infants and their parents, participants in a U.S randomized controlled trial testing effects of a prenatal intervention to promote coparenting were videorecorded in the Lausanne Trilogue Play 12 months after birth. Coders documented infant gaze, affective configurations, parental responses to bids, infant responses to parent ministrations, and ER outcomes (successfully assisted, unsuccessfully assisted, or self-regulated). Interactions were evaluated for coparenting quality, and parents reported on coparenting, depressive symptoms, and infant emotional expression. Families receiving prenatal intervention showed modest evidence of more effective triangular processes, and both successful and unsuccessful ER strategies were associated in hypothesized directions with observational and self-report indices. Multilevel analyses showed that in families with more unsuccessful ER, parental depressive symptoms had a stronger impact on child negative emotionality. Results highlight significance of exploring early ER in family triads.