Contextual risk, caregiver emotionality, and the problem behaviors of six-and seven-year-old children from economically disadvantaged families

This study explored the relations between additive and cumulative represent ations of contextual risk, caregiver emotionality, child adaptability, and teacher reports of the problem behaviors of 6- and 7-year-old children (N = 155) from economically disadvantaged families. The results showed relation s between both risk representations and child problem scores and provided e vidence that the relation for cumulative risk may be moderated by caregiver negative emotionality and caregiver positive emotionality and partially me diated by child adaptability. The results suggest the importance of explori ng alternative representations of contextual risk and the conditions under which contextual risk influences child behavior.