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 for psychopathology. We hypothesized that low language skill would affect normal socialization of emotion regulation, which in turn would affect the development of behavior problems. Seventy-eight mother/preschool-age child pairs participated in two mildly frustrating situations. Parents of children with low verbal comprehension used more unexplained compliance demands than other parents. Further, children whose parents used more unexplained compliance demands used fewer cognitive and distraction strategies, and more instrumental strategies. Children's use of physical self-comforting was positively related to overall, internalizing, and externalizing behavior problems. Findings supported the original hypothesis.