SYNOPSIS

Objective. Children of Latinx adolescent mothers are at risk for regulatory difficulties. However, a paucity of research has examined parenting behaviors and children’s early emotional development in such families. Design. Longitudinal associations between observed parenting behaviors (sensitivity, directiveness, child-directed language) at 18 months and children’s emotion dysregulation at 18 and 24 months were tested among young mainland Puerto Rican mothers (N = 123) and their toddlers. Given the cultural variability present in Latinx families, whether mothers’ cultural orientation moderated these associations was also tested. Results. Maternal sensitivity predicted less child emotion dysregulation at 24 months at all levels of cultural orientation. Directiveness was unrelated to dysregulation. Child-directed language predicted lower dysregulation only when mothers endorsed lower levels of American cultural orientation. Conclusions. It is important to consider families’ cultural context when identifying maternal behaviors that are most beneficial to child development.

概要

客观的。拉丁裔青春期母亲的孩子面临监管困难的风险。然而，很少有研究调查此类家庭中的养育行为和儿童的早期情绪发展。设计。在年轻的大陆波多黎各母亲 ( N = 123) 和他们的幼儿中测试了 18 个月时观察到的养育行为（敏感性、指导性、针对儿童的语言）与儿童在 18 个月和 24 个月时的情绪失调之间的纵向关联。考虑到拉丁裔家庭中存在的文化差异，还测试了母亲的文化取向是否调节了这些关联。结果。母亲的敏感性预示着 24 个月时在所有文化取向水平上儿童的情绪失调较少。指导性与失调无关。仅当母亲认可较低水平的美国文化取向时，以儿童为导向的语言才预示着较低的失调。结论。在确定对儿童发展最有益的母亲行为时，考虑家庭的文化背景很重要。