In the moment, while the child is interacting with the unpredictable and emotionally dangerous narcissistic / (borderline) parent, the primary motivation of the child is to keep the narcissistic / (borderline) parent in a regulated emotional state and so avoid the parent's collapse into hostile - angry - rejecting, overly sad and depressed, or hyper -
anxious emotional displays.
Even though non-clinical youth can show ER deficits, clinically
anxious youth have been identified as
displaying significantly more
emotional competence deficits than non-clinical youth (e.g., Suveg et al. 2008; Suveg and Zeman 2004).