ABSTRACT
Emotion regulation and emotionality were examined as moderators in the associations between exposure to marital and parent-child conflict and children’s adjustment and physical health. Children (6 to 11 years) and their mothers participated, and data were gathered on children’s adjustment, health, emotionality, and emotion regulation. Physiological regulation measures were obtained during baseline and simulated argument conditions as components of emotion regulation. Emotion regulation variables buffered children against some of the negative health, externalizing, and internalizing outcomes associated with exposure to both marital conflict and parent-child conflict. On the other hand, higher levels of emotionality were vulnerability factors in the associations between family conflict and children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors, with more support for the latter.
