Anger transmission from mother to child: A comparison of mothers in chronic pain and well mothers

This study tested whether on days when mothers feel angrier than usual they transmit their anger to their child through harsh parenting and it examine d whether the anger-transmission process is dampened in families in which t here is an obvious noninterpersonal explanation for maternal angel: Daily d iary data were obtained from the mother and an adolescent child in 42 contr ol families and in 40 families in which the mother experienced heightened a nger because of a chronic-pain condition, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Synd rome (RSDS). The anger-transmission model was supported in control mothers but not in RSDS mothers. Although RSDS mothers feh angrier than control mot hers on the typical day, the negativity of their parenting was less conting ent on: their anger and their children were marginally less reactive than c ontrol children to similar harsh parenting.