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Young maltreated children, birth to three years, represent the age group with the highest rates of maltreatment in the United States (ACYF 2007). There are few studies to date that have investigated early childhood maltreatment and its effects on emotion regulatory processes and psychopathology. In response, the current investigation uses a dyadic assessment procedure to examine the relationship between parenting, emotion regulation, and symptoms of psychopathology among maltreating and non-maltreating parent-child interactions. The participants in this study were 123 children (66 maltreated and 57 nonmaltreated) from ages 1-3. Child and parent affect and child effortful control were observed during a parent-child interaction task. Symptoms of psychopathology were measured using the Child Behavior Checklist. The maltreated children exhibited more anger, more internalizing symptomatology, and less positive affect compared to non-maltreated children. Among maltreated children, emotion dysregulation was associated with internalizing symptomatology. Moreover, these data reveal parental positive affect was associated with lower child internalizing symptomatology and parental anger was associated with higher child internalizing symptomatology in the entire sample. This investigation offers evidence that emotion dysregulation subsequent to poor dyadic interactions is associated with early child maltreatment. These data suggest that maltreated children experience difficulties in emotion regulation which may be related to their higher levels of behavioral symptomatology.

Current literature indicates that risk for maternal depression is substantial in low-income families. A large body of research also indicates that when mothers are depressed, children are at risk for a number of developmental difficulties. While mutual influence between child and parental difficulties has been noted, few studies examine risk factors for both depression and child aggression within ecological models. The present cross-site study examined the unique and additive contributions of contextual factors, including SES and family functioning, on maternal depression and child aggression in Early Head Start families. A multiethnic sample of parents and their children, between the ages of 12 and 43 months, participated in this study. Families came from five Early Head Start programs across the United States, representing both urban and rural areas. Structural equation models (SEM) demonstrate mutual links between depression and aggression, mediated at least in part by ecological factors. SEM indicated that 36.4% of the variance in child aggression is accounted for in a model linking aggressive behavior to parent depression, stress, and couple-level functioning, as well as other family interaction variables. A second model focusing on maternal depression revealed that 44.5% of the variance in maternal depression was accounted for through family factors, including couple-related support and satisfaction and parenting stress. In this second model, child aggression was indirectly linked to maternal depression. These data have important implications for programs serving at-risk families.