The role of parental ER in parental neglect and violence

the current explanation set out to illustrate the relationship between parental emotional dysregulation and child maltreatment, indicating the existence and strength of this link. In particular, it is important to note that the relation between emotion reactivity/regulation processes and child maltreatment might follow two plausible causal pathways: (1) parental dysfunctional emotion reactivity/regulation leads to a higher propensity to child maltreatment; and (2) previous experiences of child maltreatment lead to parental dysfunctional emotion reactivity/regulation. It is highly probable, in fact, that these relations are bi-directional and feed into each other. Therefore, in our opinion, the role of emotional processes becomes essential in underling a cluster of maltreating behaviors and conditions, with significant practical implications for (primary and secondary) interventions. In particular, the emotion regulation processes should be considered when trainings for maltreating parents are designed, to promote, in stress conditions, specific adaptive regulative skills and adequate parenting behaviors (Gratz & Gunderson, 2006).