The development of strategies that support autonomous self-regulation of emotion is key for early childhood emotion regulation. Children are thought to transition from predominant reliance on more automatic or interpersonal strategies to reliance on more effortful, autonomous strategies as they develop cognitive skills that can be recruited for…

Investigated relations among maternal cognitive coping style (approach-avoidance), affective state, and sensitivity among 56 mothers and their young children with Down syndrome over a 2-year period. Found that mothers with a strong tendency to monitor stressors reported greater affective distress than did mothers who adopted a less vigilant coping…

Two studies had children role-play successful and unsuccessful tasks to test the hypothesis that both criticism and praise that conveyed person or trait judgments could send a message of contingent worth and undermine subsequent coping. Found that 5- to 6-year olds displayed significantly more "helpless" responses after person criticism or praise…

Explores the differences between boys and girls (5- and 7-year-olds) in their use of two kinds of strategies with interpersonal conflict: (1) active persuasion and negotiation, and (2) mitigation without disrupting social harmony between the interactors. (HOD)

Examined the effect of a family-oriented early childhood intervention program for low birth weight premature infants and their mothers. Found that the intervention decreased maternal distress, especially for women with less than a high school education. Maternal distress did not moderate or mediate the influence of the intervention on child…