The relations of regulation and emotionality to children's externalizing and internalizing problem behavior

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation of different types of negative emotion and regulation and control to 55- to 97-month-olds' inter nalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. Parents and teachers provided information on children's (N = 214) adjustment, dispositional regulation a nd control, and emotion, and children's regulation was observed during seve ral behavioral tasks. Internalizing was defined in two ways: as social with drawal (to avoid overlap of items with measures of emotionality) or, more b roadly, as anxiety, depression, and psychosomatic complaints. In general, c hildren with externalizing problems, compared with children with internaliz ing problems and nondisordered children, were more prone to anger, impulsiv ity, and low regulation. Children with internalizing symptoms were prone to sadness, low attentional regulation, and low impulsivity Relations between internalizing problems and emotionality were more frequent when the entire internalizing scale was used. Findings suggest that emotion and regulation are associated with adjustment in systematic ways and that there is an imp ortant difference between effortful control and less voluntary modes of con trol.