Internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems place children at an increased risk for low academic achievement and socioemotional maladjustment. Children's language skills and level of emotional reactivity have been shown to predict behavioral problems later in development. Yet, there is an absence of research investigating vocabulary by negative emotionality interactions with respect to the development of behavioral problems during early childhood. Our study sought to fill this gap by examining whether the relation between preschool (age 3) vocabulary size and internalizing/externalizing problems during the early school years (age 6) is moderated by preschool negative emotional reactivity, even after controlling for preschool behavioral problems as well as children's socioeconomic background. Longitudinal data was collected from 256 typically developing children (129 girls, 75% White) and their mothers (64% held a college degree). Linear regression analyses revealed moderate rank-order stability in children's internalizing and externalizing problems across this period of development. Evidence of an interaction effect emerged in both the internalizing and externalizing problems regression models. That is, age 3 vocabulary was negatively related to age 6 behavioral problems, but only among children exhibiting higher levels of negative emotional reactivity. Our results indicate that early vocabulary acquisition may serve as a buffer against adverse behavioral outcomes in children with a natural propensity toward expressing negative emotions. These findings point to a more nuanced picture of the relations between language, emotional reactivity, and behavioral problems in childhood, which are discussed in greater detail to inform future intervention and educational research.

中文翻译：

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词汇量可以预测情绪反应儿童的行为问题

内化和外化的行为问题使儿童面临学业成绩低下和社会情绪失调的风险增加。儿童的语言技能和情绪反应水平已被证明可以预测发育后期的行为问题。然而，目前还没有研究通过消极情绪相互作用来调查词汇与幼儿期行为问题的发展有关。我们的研究试图通过检查学龄前（3岁）词汇量与学前（6岁）内化/外化问题之间的关系是否受到学前负面情绪反应的调节来填补这一空白，即使在控制了学前行为问题之后也是如此。以及儿童的社会经济背景。纵向数据收集自 256 名正常发育儿童（129 名女孩，75% 白人）及其母亲（64% 拥有大学学位）。线性回归分析显示，在这一发展时期，儿童的内化和外化问题具有中等的排序稳定性。内化和外化问题回归模型中都出现了相互作用效应的证据。也就是说，3 岁时的词汇量与 6 岁时的行为问题呈负相关，但仅限于表现出较高水平的负面情绪反应的儿童。我们的结果表明，对于具有表达负面情绪的自然倾向的儿童来说，早期词汇习得可能会起到缓冲不良行为结果的作用。这些发现为儿童时期的语言、情绪反应和行为问题之间的关系提供了更细致的描述，对此进行了更详细的讨论，以便为未来的干预和教育研究提供信息。