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Abstract

To support at-risk families and interrupt the intergenerational transmission of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs; e.g., mental illness, abuse and neglect), it is essential to investigate the underlying mechanisms of these cycles. One mechanism of interest is emotion dysregulation (ED), a transdiagnostic marker of psychopathology that involves both intra- and interpersonal processes and develops within parent-child coregulatory transactions. To explore these transactions, this dissertation extends the ‘Tripartite Model of the Impact of the Family on Children’s Emotion Regulation’ by adding four variables: physiological factors, biobehavioral synchrony, social support, and environmental factors. The Revised Tripartite Model with its emphasis on dynamic, bidirectional influences offers a comprehensive framework to understand how children’s emotion regulation and psychological adjustment is shaped. Particular focus in this dissertation is placed on borderline personality disorder (BPD), a condition marked by ED and interpersonal difficulties. The aim of this dissertation was to investigate specific aspects of the model, explore their implications for the development of children’s emotion regulation within a coregulatory context, and outline directions for future research and clinical practice. Study 1 employed a longitudinal design with a community sample of mothers and their young infants. Maternal dissociative symptoms 5 months postpartum were related to higher self-reported parenting stress, bonding impairments, and increased risk of physical abuse 12 months postpartum. They also predicted impaired observed parenting behavior and mediated the relationship between maternal abuse history and self-reported parenting difficulties. Study 2 and 3 investigated a clinical sample of mother-adolescent dyads and focused on individual behavior and physiology as well as biobehavioral synchrony in the context of adolescent borderline personality traits. For BPD dyads, reduced quality of maternal and adolescent behavior, and a lower adolescent resting state heart rate variability (HRV) were found. Only mothers in healthy dyads displayed concordant HRV and behavior. BPD dyads showed lower behavioral synchrony than HC dyads. Under stress, HC dyads increased their behavioral synchrony but did not show any HRV synchrony, while BPD dyads decreased their behavioral synchrony and were positively synchronized in HRV. Study 4 highlights the protective role of social support, demonstrating its potential to buffer the negative impact of ACEs across generations.