Infants' abilities to orient and regulate are directly linked to self‐regulatory capacity in childhood, which is subsequently associated with indicators of health and well‐being. However, relatively little is known regarding factors affecting early orienting and regulation. The current study evaluated the effects of infant negative affect and household chaos when children were 4 months old and parenting at 6 months of age on subsequent regulatory capacity at 8 months of age in a sample of 179 mother‐infant dyads. The potential moderating role of infant sex was examined in consideration of the viability–vulnerability tradeoff theory, which posits that females may be more susceptible to the impact of stressful environments in early development. Analyses indicated that early household chaos was related to subsequently lower orienting/regulatory abilities at 8 months of age. Additionally, there were significant sex‐by‐negative affectivity and sex‐by‐household chaos interactions, such that boys' regulatory capacity was negatively impacted by early negative affectivity and girls' was adversely affected by household chaos. Findings indicate some support for the viability–vulnerability tradeoff theory. Highlights The current study evaluated whether early negative affect and contextual factors impacted infant orienting/regulation at 8 months of age, and whether they influenced boys and girls differently. Results indicate that chaotic household environments negatively impact infants' ability to orient/regulate, and that male and female infants are differently affected by early negative affectivity and household chaos. This study suggests that parents should aim to decrease levels of home chaos to promote optimal regulatory development, and finds some support for the viability‐vulnerability tradeoff theory.

Early in development, children rely heavily on caregivers for assistance with the regulation of negative emotion. As such, it is important to understand parent characteristics that influence caregiver ability to attenuate infant negative affect and mediating factors by which this process may unfold. This study examined the relationship between parental emotional regulation strategies (ERs) and infants’ negative affect and tested the mediating effects of parenting self-efficacy and knowledge of this association. Results indicated that higher maternal reappraisal was related to higher maternal self-efficacy whereas higher maternal suppression was related to lower knowledge of parenting practices. Maternal suppression was negatively related to infant frustration; maternal self-efficacy was positively related to infant falling reactivity and negatively related to sadness. There was a significant indirect effect between maternal reappraisal and infant falling reactivity through maternal self-efficacy. The mediation result suggests that mothers with higher use of reappraisal show higher self-efficacy and have infants with higher falling reactivity. Maternal knowledge about parenting practices was related to lower infant fear. Maternal knowledge of parenting practices did not mediate any associations between maternal emotion regulation strategies and infant negative affect. These findings contribute to the understanding early protective parenting mechanisms for supporting the external regulation of negative affect in infants and also in designing and implementing preventive parenting programs focused on the emotional needs of parents and children.