Emotion Socialization in the Context of Risk and Psychopathology: Maternal Emotion Coaching Predicts Better Treatment Outcomes for Emotionally Labile Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder

We examined whether maternal emotion coaching at pre-treatment predicted children's treatment response following a 12-week program addressing children's Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) symptoms. Eighty-nine mother-child dyads participated. At pre-treatment, mothers and children engaged in an emotion talk task. Mothers also reported their beliefs about emotions at pre-treatment and their child's disruptive behavior symptoms, emotion regulation, and emotion lability/negativity at pre-, mid-, and post-treatment. Clinicians reported children's symptom severity at pre- and post-treatment. Children's emotion lability/negativity moderated effects of maternal emotion coaching on children's post-treatment ODD symptoms, with stronger benefits of emotion coaching for children high in emotion lability/negativity. Results suggest that emotion coaching may promote treatment response for children with ODD who are especially at risk due to their emotionality.