Parental supportiveness and protective overcontrol and preschoolers' parasympathetic regulation were examined as predictors of temperamental inhibition, social wariness, and internalizing problems. Lower baseline vagal tone and weaker vagal suppression were expected to mark poorer dispositional self-regulatory capacity, leaving children more susceptible to the influence of parental socialization. Less supportive mothers had preschoolers with more internalizing problems. One interaction between baseline vagal tone and maternal protective overcontrol, predicting social wariness, conformed to the moderation hypothesis. Conversely, vagal suppression moderated several links between paternal socialization and children's anxious difficulties in the expected pattern. There were more links between mothers' self-reported parenting and child outcomes than were noted for direct observations of maternal behavior, whereas the opposite tended to be true for fathers.

This study examined the direct and indirect associations between heterosexism and adolescents' adjustment using a sample of 50 dyads composed of lesbian mothers and their adolescents. Mothers and adolescent children completed questionnaires on experienced and perceived heterosexism, social support, coming out, and adjustment. Mothers' experienced heterosexism and adolescents' perceived heterosexism were negatively associated with adolescents' adjustment. Mothers' support moderated the negative associations between adolescents' perceived heterosexism and adolescents' internalizing problems. Friends' support moderated the negative associations between adolescents' coming out as children of lesbian mothers and adolescents' externalizing problems. School support was negatively associated with adolescents' problems, and it moderated the negative associations between a) adolescents' experienced heterosexism and internalizing problems, b) adolescents' coming out as children of lesbian mothers and internalizing problems, c) adolescents' coming out as children of lesbian mothers and externalizing problems. Consistent with previous research on younger children of lesbian mothers, the findings underlined the role of school, family, and social networks in protecting the wellbeing of adolescents raised by lesbian mothers.

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