The present study examined whether emotional reactivity mediated the association between interparental violence, parental hostility, and children's worrying among 90 youth living with substance-abusing parents. Children completed measures of security and anxiety. Mothers and fathers' completed measures of violence perpetrated toward their partners and general hostility. Results of a Bayesian mediation model revealed indirect effects such that after controlling for other variables in the model, fathers' hostility was associated with greater emotional reactivity, which in turn was associated with children's reports of worrying. The indirect effects of mothers' hostility, parents' interparental violence, and child age on children's reports of worrying via children's emotional reactivity were not statistically significant. Results suggest that fathers' hostility is associated with children's reports of worrying among children residing with a substanceabusing parent via associations with children's emotional reactivity to parental conflict.

The present study examined how interparental violence, neighborhood violence, behavioral regulation during parental conflict, and age predicted beliefs about the acceptability of aggression and the acceptance of retaliation against an aggressive peer among youths. Participants were 110 families (mothers, fathers, and children) in which one or both parents met criteria for substance use disorder. Results of a bootstrapped path model revealed higher exposure to neighborhood violence predicted greater acceptability of general aggression, whereas higher father-to-mother violence perpetration predicted lower acceptability of general aggression. Higher exposure to neighborhood violence, behavioral dysregulation during parental conflict, and older child age predicted greater approval of retaliation toward an aggressive peer. Findings are interpreted as related to the cognitive-contextual framework.

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