This study examined interparental conflict as a linear and curvilinear predictor of subsequent changes in adolescents' negative emotional reactivity and cortisol functioning during family conflict and, in turn, their psychological difficulties. In addition, adolescents' negative emotional reactivity and cortisol functioning during family conflict…

Prior work suggests that substance-dependent mothers insensitively respond to their child's emotional needs, which can increase children's risk for psychopathology. However, the mechanisms and processes underlying these associations remain unclarified. Mothers' insensitivity to children's distress is an especially unique predictor of child…

The longitudinal contributions of emotion regulation and emotion lability-negativity to internalizing symptomatology were examined in a low-income sample (171 maltreated and 151 nonmaltreated children, from age 7 to 10 years). Latent difference score models indicated that for both maltreated and nonmaltreated children, emotion regulation was a…

Direct and indirect relations among maternal depression, maternal Expressed Emotion (EE: Self- and Child-Criticism), child internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and child attachment were examined. Participants were mothers with depression (n = 130) and comparison mothers (n = 68) and their toddlers (M age = 20 mo.; 53% male). Assessments…

This study examined whether children’s difficulties with stage-salient tasks served as an explanatory mechanism in the pathway between their insecurity in the interparental relationship and their disruptive behavior problems. Using a multimethod, multi-informant design, 201 two-year-old children and their mothers participated in 3 annual…

The authors examined 284 maltreated and nonmaltreated children's (6- to 12-year-olds) ability to inhibit true and false memories for neutral and emotional information using the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Children studied either emotional or neutral DRM lists in a control condition or were given directed-remembering or…

Marital conflict is a distressing context in which children must regulate their emotion and behavior; however, the associations between the multidimensionality of conflict and children's regulatory processes need to be examined. The current study examined differences in children's (N=207, mean age=8.02 years) emotions (mad, sad, scared, and happy)…

This study examined specific forms of emotional reactivity to conflict and temperamental emotionality as explanatory mechanisms in pathways among interparental aggression and child psychological problems. Participants of the multimethod, longitudinal study included 201 two-year-old children and their mothers who had experienced elevated violence…

Background: This paper examined children's fearful, sad, and angry reactivity to interparental conflict as mediators of associations between their exposure to interparental aggression and physiological functioning. Methods: Participants included 200 toddlers and their mothers. Assessments of interparental aggression and children's emotional…

Recorded cognitive event-related potentials from maltreated and nonmaltreated children during presentations of happy, angry, or neutral facial expressions. Found that for nonmaltreated children, the average amplitude of P300 was comparable for responses to happy and neutral expressions. Maltreated children displayed larger P300 amplitude to…

Two studies examined psychometric properties of a new criterion Q-sort for children's emotion regulation and autonomy. Multitrait-multimethod matrix and factor analyses indicated impressive convergence among the emotion regulation Q-scale and established affect regulation measures. The new scale was not discriminable from measures of related…

Examined the effects of child maltreatment and interadult violence on children's developing strategies of emotion regulation and socioemotional development, and the role of emotion dysregulation in mediating the link between children's pathogenic relational experiences and behavioral outcomes for 3- to 6-year-olds. Found that maltreatment history…

Examined children's visual self-recognition. Lower-SES maltreated children did not differ from lower- or middle-SES comparison children in the development of self-recognition. Differences between the samples in the quality of affective reactions to mirror self-images were observed. (BC)

Examined moral development in maltreated and non-maltreated 3- and 4-year-olds through observation of child compliance/noncompliance during a cleanup situation following play. Found that abused children exhibited less internalization than non-maltreated. Neglected children showed more negative affect than others. Found no group differences in…

Two experiments assessed recognition of emotion among physically abused and neglected preschoolers. Results showed that neglected children had more difficulty discriminating emotional expressions that control or abused children. Abused children displayed response bias for angry facial expressions. Control children viewed discrete emotions as…