Models of transdiagnostic family emotion processes recognize parents’ emotion-related characteristics and behaviors as key contributors to child emotional development and psychological functioning. One such psychological outcome, child anxiety, is prevalent and early emerging, underscoring the importance of identifying early family- and emotion-related mechanisms involved in anxiety risk. We investigated the extent to which mother and child emotion-related traits and behaviors related to child anxiety in a community sample of 175 mother–child dyads. Using three time-points (child ages 2–4 years, assessments 1 year apart), we examined how mothers’ emotion dysregulation predicted their emotion socialization practices (either supportive or non-supportive) and children’s emotion regulation (ER; either attention- or caregiver-focused) over time, in relation to later child anxiety. Models controlled for child inhibited temperament and also tested the role of maternal anxiety in these trajectories. Mothers reported on their emotion dysregulation, emotion socialization, and their own and their child’s anxiety, whereas child ER and inhibited temperament were measured using laboratory observation. In supportive emotion socialization models, maternal emotion dysregulation predicted child anxiety 2 years later. An indirect effect emerged, such that greater maternal emotion dysregulation predicted greater non-supportive emotion socialization, which in turn related to children’s greater caregiver-focused ER. Maternal emotion dysregulation, maternal anxiety, and child inhibited temperament each predicted child anxiety above and beyond other variables, although their shared variance likely accounted for some of the results. Findings lend partial support to current theoretical models of transdiagnostic family emotion processes and child anxiety development, suggesting promising avenues of future research.

经转诊的家庭情感过程模型认识到父母与情感有关的特征和行为是儿童情感发展和心理功能的关键因素。一种这样的心理结果，即儿童焦虑症，很普遍并且早日出现，强调了识别参与焦虑风险的家庭和情绪相关的早期机制的重要性。我们在175个母婴二元组的社区样本中调查了与母婴情感相关的特征和行为与儿童焦虑症相关的程度。我们使用三个时间点（2-4岁儿童，相隔1年进行评估），研究了母亲的情绪失调如何预测他们的情绪社交行为（支持或不支持）和孩子的情绪调节（ER；要么注意-或保姆重点），与以后的儿童焦虑症有关。控制儿童气质的模型也测试了母亲焦虑在这些轨迹中的作用。母亲报告了他们的情绪失调，情绪社交，以及自己和孩子的焦虑，而使用实验室观察对孩子的ER和抑制的气质进行了测量。在支持性情感社会化模型中，母亲情感失调可预测2年后的儿童焦虑症。出现了间接影响，例如，母亲情绪失调加剧预示着更多的非支持性情绪社会化，这反过来又关系到儿童对照顾者的关注程度更高。产妇情绪失调，产妇焦虑症和儿童气质受到抑制，每个预测的儿童焦虑症都超出其他变量，尽管他们的共同差异可能是其中一些结果的原因。这些发现为当前的诊断性家庭情感过程和儿童焦虑症发展的理论模型提供了部分支持，为未来的研究提供了有希望的途径。