Mothers' emotional expressivity and children's behavior problems and social competence: Mediation through children's regulation

The relations between mothers' expressed positive and negative emotion and 55-79-month-olds' (76% European American) regulation, social competence, an d adjustment were examined. Structural equation modeling was used to test t he plausibility of the hypothesis that the effects of maternal expression o f emotion on children's adjustment and social competence are mediated throu gh children's dispositional regulation. Mothers' expressed emotions were as sessed during interactions with their children and with maternal reports of emotions expressed in the family. Children's regulation, externalizing and internalizing problems, and social competence were rated by parents and te achers, and children's persistence was surreptitiously observed. There were unique effects of positive and negative maternal expressed emotion on chil dren's regulation, and the relations of maternal expressed emotion to child ren's externalizing problem behaviors and social competence were mediated t hrough children's regulation. Alternative models of causation were tested; a child-directed model in which maternal expressivity mediated the effects of child regulation on child outcomes did not fit the data as well.