Relations among child language skills, maternal socialization of emotion regulation, and child behavior problems

Research has linked language delays in young children to behavior problems and risk far psychopathology. We hypothesized that low language skill would affect normal socialization of emotion regulation, which in turn would aff ect the development of behavior problems. Seventy-eight mother/preschool-ag e child pairs participated in two mildly frustrating situations. Parents of children with low verbal comprehension used more unexplained compliance de mands than other parents. Further, children whose parents used more unexpla ined compliance demands used fewer cognitive and distraction strategies, an d more instrumental strategies. Children's use of physical self-comforting was positively related to overall, internalizing, and externalizing behavio r problems. Findings supported the original hypothesis.