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AbstractObjectiveWe examined whether mothers' and child's regulatory capacity, measured by effortful control (EC) and its facets, is associated with variance in mother–child within‐dyad similarity in multiple aspects of positive emotions and behaviors during their interaction.BackgroundBoth parents' and children's self‐regulation capacities may help them to modulate their behaviors and emotions to be mutually responsive to and harmonious with their interaction partner.MethodsParticipants were children of 3‐ to‐7‐year‐olds and their mothers (n = 147). Mothers completed a set of questionnaires regarding themselves, their child, and demographics, and mother–child interactions were observed during three cooperative tasks. We estimated mother–child within‐dyad similarity during their brief interaction using the Q‐correlation method.ResultsMothers' general EC was statistically associated with greater mother–child similarity, but children's EC was not. When testing the subscales of EC, greater mother–child similarity was associated with mother's higher attentional control, child's better attention focusing, child's lower levels of low intensity pleasure, and older child age.ConclusionMother's higher attentional control and child's better attention focusing are associated with greater mother and child within‐dyad similarity during their interactions.ImplicationsThis study highlights the importance of considering child and mother self‐regulation for intervention efforts to better understand how dyads match and co‐modulate their behaviors and emotions during their interactions.

AbstractParents' responses to children's negative emotional states play a key role in the socialization of emotion regulation skills in childhood. Much of the prior research on child ER has focused on early development using cross‐sectional designs. The current study addresses these gaps by using a longitudinal design to examine individual differences of ER at two times points in middle childhood. We examined the development of children's ER by testing hypotheses about the interplay of parent response to emotions and household chaos in the prediction of individual differences in children's ER. Participants were the mothers of children at 6 and 9 years of age among 224 families in a socioeconomically diverse sample that was part of an ongoing longitudinal study. Mothers completed questionnaires regarding themselves, their children, and their home environment. Mothers' reports of better child ER at both time points were positively associated with mothers' more supportive responses and negatively associated with mothers' less non‐supportive responses, as well as lower household chaos. Chaos statistically moderated the link between non‐supportive parental responses to emotion and child ER, but only at 6 years of age. The strength of the link between child ER and non‐supportive parental responses to emotions was strong only at lower levels of household chaos. At the beginning of middle childhood, family processes linking parent responses to child emotions and children's developing ER may not function at higher levels of household chaos.