This study examined parents' and children's affect regulation skills and constructive behavior to test whether a modeling mechanism or a parent-child interaction mechanism best accounted for children's behavior. Thirty-six married couples and their 4- to 7-year-old children participated in the study. The families were asked to play a board game called "Max the Cat" in a cooperative manner. Parents were then asked to choose a problem area in their relationship to discuss in front of their child, and later completed the Conflict Tactics Scale. Videotapes of these interactions were then coded and analyzed. It was found that while parents' self-report of overall aggression in their marriages was associated with their observed behavior during the marital problem discussion, parents' behavior during that task was independent of their behavior during the family game task. Parents' supportive behaviors in both family tasks were positively associated with children's positive affect and negatively associated with children's negativity, whereas parents' negative behaviors and level of marital aggression were positively associated with children's negative behavior, negative affect, and withdrawal. It is concluded that children are influenced both by their parents' interactional behavior and parenting behavior. (Contains 12 references.) (MDM)