Developmental profiles of aggression across early childhood: Contributions of emotion regulation and maternal behavior

Aggressive behavior typically peaks in toddlerhood and decreases by school entry. However, an estimated ten percent of children do not show this normative decline. In addition, persistent aggression in toddlerhood, preschool, and early childhood may develop into disruptive, problem behavior in adolescence and adulthood. The current study examined 318 boys and girls from a sample selected in toddlerhood for externalizing behavior problems. At 2, 4, and 5 years of age mother's reported on children's aggressive behavior. In addition, observed and physiological measures of child temperamental reactivity and emotion regulation and maternal behavior were assessed in toddlerhood. A sub model of SEMM (structural equation mixture modeling), latent profile analysis (LPA; Gibson, 1959), was performed, resulting in 4 longitudinal profiles of aggression: a high profile, a sub-threshold profile, a normative profile, and a low profile. Composites of observed emotion regulation, physiological emotion regulation, and maternal controlling behavior significantly predicted the probability of membership in the profiles. Furthermore, physiological emotion regulation moderated the effects of maternal control and observed emotion regulation on the probability of membership in the profiles. The results reinforce theory that suggests emotion regulation and maternal behavior display moderational relations to aggressive behavior problems. In addition, the findings suggest specific mechanisms operating among multiple indices of emotion regulation and between emotion regulation and maternal behavior in relation to aggressive behavior in early childhood that should be examined in the future.