Background: Effective emotion regulation should be reflected in greater coherence between physiological and subjective aspects of emotional responses. Method: Youths with normative to clinical levels of internalizing problems (IP) and externalizing problems (EP) watched emotionally evocative film-clips while having heart rate (HR) recorded, and…

Deficits in executive function, and in particular, reduced capacity to inhibit a dominant action, are a risk factor for externalizing problems (EP). Inhibitory control (IC) develops in the later preschool and early childhood periods, such that IC might not regulate EP in toddlers and younger preschoolers. Aggression was observed during peer play…

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…

This study examined toddler precursors of preschoolers' externalizing behaviors. Findings indicated that boys initiated more conflictual-aggressive interactions as toddlers and had more externalizing difficulties 2 years later, yet girls' (not boys') conflict-aggressive initiations at age 2 related to subsequent externalizing problems. The…