Running Head : Emotion regulation and risk for externalizing disorder - 1 - The longitudinal development of emotion regulation capacities in children at risk for externalizing disorders

The development of emotional regulation capacities in children at high versus low risk for externalizing disorder was examined in a longitudinal study investigating: a) whether disturbances in emotion regulation precede and predict the emergence of externalizing symptoms; and b) whether sensitive maternal behavior is a significant influence on the development of child emotion regulation. Families experiencing high (n=58) and low (n=63) levels of psychosocial adversity were recruited to the study during pregnancy. Direct observational assessments of child emotion regulation capacities and maternal sensitivity were completed in early infancy, at 12 and 18-months, and at 5-years. Key findings were as follows. First, high risk children showed poorer emotion regulation capacities than their low risk counterparts at every stage of assessment. Second, from 12-months onwards, emotion regulation capacities showed a degree of stability, and were associated with behavioral problems, both concurrently and prospectively. Third, maternal sensitivity was related to child emotion regulation capacities throughout development, with poorer emotion regulation in the high risk group being associated with lower maternal sensitivity. The results are consistent with a causal role for problems in the regulation of negative emotions in the etiology of externalizing psychopathology, and highlight insensitive parenting as a potentially key developmental influence. development Running Head: Emotion regulation and risk for externalizing disorder-3-The longitudinal development of emotion regulation capacities in children at risk for externalizing disorders Emotion regulation, broadly conceptualized as the ability to manage states of arousal in order to facilitate adaptive functioning or goal-directed activity, is an essential component of healthy psychological development. Although developmental advances in the ability to regulate emotional responding may continue to into adulthood (Charles & Carstensen, 2007), the most dramatic gains in emotion regulation capacities occur in the first few years of life. While young infants are almost wholly reliant on their caregiver to regulate their emotional arousal, by 4 or 5 years of age children are already relatively skilled self-regulators, employing multiple strategies to manage their own emotional states (Kopp, 1989; Rothbart, 1989). Normative increases in emotion regulatory capacities appear to contribute to several other development progressions, including decreases in aggression and increases in compliance, and to facilitate effective cognitive and social engagement (Kochanska & Given the contribution of emergent emotion regulation capacities to normal developmental achievements, research attention has turned to the potential role of deficits in the ability to regulate emotions in the etiology of childhood psychopathology (Cole, Michel, defined by emotional and …