The Role of Physiological Regulation in Understanding the Influence of Child Abuse Potential on Children’s Behavioral Problems

Abstract

The current projectinvestigated the role of toddlers’ physiological regulation at 24 months in therelationship between prenatal maltreatment risk and internalizing andexternalizing problems at age 3 using a sample of 249 primiparious mothers andtheir first-born children. Regression analyses were used to explorephysiological regulation, indexed by sleeping, eating, sensory sensitivity andnegative emotionality, as a mediator of the relationship between abusepotential, measured by the Child Abuse Potential Inventory, and children’sproblematic behaviors. Findings revealed direct effects between child abuse potentialand internalizing and externalizing problems and child abuse potential and dysregulation.Further analyses highlighted regulation as a mediator of the relationshipbetween child abuse potential and internalizing problems, whereas both childabuse potential and children’s dysregulation were important in determiningexternalizing problems. Self-regulation appears to be a key target for interventionprograms for toddlers to halt the progression of behavioral problems often foundin maltreated children.