Self-regulation is a major developmental accomplishment that begins in infancy and continues throughout childhood. This study focused on early socialization of self-regulation, and examined whether there was a common core of self-regulation in young children cutting across contexts and age, and whether the same maternal behaviors operate similarly to support the growth of self-regulation across different aspects of self-regulation and over age. Participating in the study were 96 children assessed at 15, 24, and 36 months of age in several laboratory situations, including structured and unstructured interactions with their mothers. Various aspects of mothers' and children's behavior corresponding to different aspects of emerging self-regulation were coded, emotion regulation at 15 months, resistance to temptation at 24 months, persistence and mastery behavior at 36 months. The findings indicated that there were no relations among 15-month behavioral and affective responses to frustration, 24-month resistance to temptation latency or strategies, and 36-month persistence and affective responses to difficult tasks, suggesting little coherence in specific features of self-regulation during the toddler years. However, there were several correspondences in maternal behavior over tasks and ages, suggesting some continuity in mothers' socializing strategies relevant to self-regulation across several interaction contexts and ages. Using a general Self-Regulation score for children and four general parenting dimension scores for mothers (Controlling/High Structure, Negative/Intrusive, Supportive Structure/Gentle Guidance, and Warm/Positive), no relations were found across ages and settings in children's propensity to self-regulate. The overall self-regulation score was related to the affective, but not the controlling, structuring, and guiding, features of parenting. (KB)