Relational Savoring Intervention: Positive Impacts for Mothers and Evidence of Cultural Compatibility for Latinas

• Published in: Emotion (Washington, D.C.) Vol. 23; no. 2; pp. 303 - 320
• Main Authors: Borelli, Jessica L., Kerr, Margaret L., Smiley, Patricia A., Rasmussen, Hannah F., Hecht, Hannah K., Campos, Belinda
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Psychological Association 01-03-2023
• Subjects: Emotional Regulation; Emotional Regulation - physiology; Emotions - physiology; Female; Hispanic or Latino; Human; Humans; Infant; Interpersonal Compatibility; Intervention; Latinos/Latinas; Male; Mothers; Mothers - psychology; Parenting; Parenting - psychology; Reflectiveness; Sensitivity (Personality); reflective functioning; parenting sensitivity; savoring; attachment-based intervention; Latino/a
• ISSN: 1528-3542; 1931-1516
• DOI: 10.1037/emo0001102

Parenting young children poses numerous emotion regulation challenges, and prevention programs that promote emotion regulation skills can help with this important task of parenthood. Relational savoring (RS), which entails savoring a positive experience of interpersonal connectedness, is a brief manualized intervention program, 4 weeks in length, grounded in positive psychology and attachment theory. In the current longitudinal, randomized, controlled trial, we examined the impacts of RS compared with an active control (personal savoring [PS], defined as savoring a positive individual experience) in a sample of N = 164 mothers of toddlers (Mage = 20.93 months) on outcomes that were assessed immediately postintervention (positive emotion, closeness to child) and at a 3-month follow-up visit (parenting sensitivity, reflective functioning [RF], savoring uptake, and parenting wellness). Compared with mothers assigned to the PS condition, mothers in the RS condition had greater immediate response to the intervention (greater increases in positive emotions [gratitude, pride], closeness to their child) as well as greater increase in sensitivity to toddlers' cues at the three-month follow-up. Neither RS nor PS increased overall parenting wellness at the three-month follow-up. Latina mothers (but not non-Latina mothers) in the RS condition had higher RF and greater savoring uptake than Latina mothers in the PS condition at follow-up. Findings provide preliminary evidence of the efficacy of RS in modifying therapeutic targets and suggest evidence of the cultural congruence of RS for Latina mothers.