Emotion regulation as a mediator of associations between mother-child attachment and peer relationships in middle childhood

Although a link between attachment and peer relationships has been establis hed, the mechanisms that account for this link have not been identified. Th e Ist goal of this study was to test emotion regulation as a mediator of th is link in middle childhood. The 2nd goal was to examine how different aspe cts of emotion regulation relate to peer competence. Fifth graders complete d self-report and semiprojective measures to index mother-child attachment, mothers reported on children's emotionality and coping strategies, and tea chers reported on children's peer competence. Constructive coping was relat ed to both attachment and peer competence, and mediated the association bet ween attachment and peer competence, suggesting that emotion regulation is one of the mechanisms accounting for attachment-peer links. Constructive co ping was more strongly associated with peer competence for children high on negative emotionality than for children low on negative emotionality.