The role of social adversity on emotional dysregulation during infancy and early childhood.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate if social adversity is associated with mother reported emotional dysregulation behaviors and trajectories during infancy and early childhood.

Design & Methods: A secondary data analysis from the Durham Child Health and Development study study included 206 child-mother dyads. Three models were used to explore the relationship between social adversity and mother reported emotional dysregulation during infancy (Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised) and early childhood (Child Behavior Checklist - Dysregulation Profile). Linear mixed effects models were adopted to investigate if social adversity was associated with mother reported emotional dysregulation longitudinally. Regression analysis was conducted to explore if social adversity was associated with maternal reported emotional dysregulation trajectory slope scores and maternal reported emotional dysregulation trajectory class. Maternal psychological distress and the child's sex assigned at birth were included as covariates in each analysis.

Results: Infants with greater social adversity scores had significantly higher maternal reported fear responses across the first year of life. Social adversity was associated with maternal reported distress to limitations trajectory, dysregulated recovery class, and dysregulated distress to limitations class. During early childhood social adversity was significantly associated with maternal reported emotional dysregulation but not trajectories which showed little variability.

Conclusion & Practical Implications: Our results indicate that social adversity is associated with maternal reported emotional dysregulation during infancy and early childhood. Nursing and other professionals can participate in early screening to determine risk and provide intervention.