Date of Award

Spring 2026

Language

English

Embargo Period

4-28-2026

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School/Department

Department of Psychology

Program

Psychology (Master's)

First Advisor

Elana Gordis

Committee Members

Sarah Domoff

Keywords

Cognitive Emotion Regulation, Family Contexts, Harsh Parenting, Family Routines, Shared Family Activities, Family Environment

Subject Categories

Child Psychology | Clinical Psychology | Counseling Psychology | Developmental Psychology

Abstract

Cognitive emotion regulation (CER), consisting of adaptive and maladaptive strategies, is a critical developmental process linked to various well-being outcomes across the lifespan. Family contexts such as daily routines, parenting, and engagement shape the development of emotion regulation. Existing literature generally links family routines to better CER outcomes (Selman & Dilworth-Bart, 2023), but has not yet investigated the impact of routines in adverse family environments. The present study examined whether harsh parenting and the frequency of shared family activities jointly moderate the relationship between family routines and adaptive and maladaptive CER. A sample of emerging adults (N = 210; mean age = 19.33) retrospectively reported on the frequency of family routines, shared family activities, and harsh parenting experiences, as well as the use of current adaptive and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies. We tested two separate moderated moderation models for adaptive and maladaptive CER. Regression analyses indicated that the three-way interaction between routine, harsh parenting, and family activities significantly predicted maladaptive, but not adaptive, CER. Specifically, when levels of harsh parenting and family activities were both high, higher levels of routine were associated with more maladaptive CER use. These findings highlight that routine is not uniformly beneficial and may lose its supportive function in coercive and punitive caregiving environments. The study, therefore, underscores the need for contextualized models of emotion regulation development. The findings highlight the importance of addressing the quality of parenting and the family’s emotional climate in clinical interventions promoting routine.

License

This work is licensed under the University at Albany Standard Author Agreement.

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