Maternal Apology Study

The Maternal Apology study is a cross-sectional survey study that examines mothers’ attitudes about and experiences with apologizing to their children. Because parenting is a profoundly difficult endeavor, even the most well-informed parents will inevitably make parenting mistakes and will need to apologize to their children. The goals of this project are to gain insight into if/how mothers apologize to their children and to determine if apology behaviors are related to more general parenting attitudes and child behavior.

This project is also investigating how maternal apology attitudes and behavior may be influenced by a mother’s ability to regulate emotions and experiences of childhood trauma and invalidation. Approximately ~200 moms, drawn from a representative sample of Eugene, OR, will complete this study online.