Antecedents of Preschool Children's Internalizing Problems: A Longitudinal Study of Low-Income Families DANIEL S. SHAW, PH.D., KATE KEENAN, PH.D., JOAN I. VONDRA, PH.D., ERIC DELLIQUADRI, B.S., AND JOYCE GIOVANNELLI, B.S. ABSTRACT ObJective: To examine antecedents of young children's internalizing problems using research related to emotion regulation to guide prediction. Method: longitudinal data were collected on 86 low-income mother--ehild dyads to examine risk factors related to early internalizing problems as measured by the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCl). Results: The following risk factors, assessed during infancy, were related to the development of preschool-age inter- nalizing problems: negative emotionality, disorganized attachment classification, negative life events, exposure to child- rearing disagreements, and parenting hassles. In addition, the interaction of high negative emotionality and exposure to parental conflict added unique variance to the prediction of scores on the CBCl Withdrawal and Depression/Anxiety sub- scales. Conclusions: Children's preschool-age internalizing problems can be identified during infancy from multiple domains related to the development of emotion regulation. Further longitudinal work is encouraged that incorporates direct measurement of children's negative emotionality, parenting, and family factors that influence both parenting and children's emotion regulation. J. Am. Acad. Child Ado/esc. Psychiatry. 1997,36(12):1760-1767. Key Words: child psychopathology, internalizing problems, preschool children, emotion regulation. There are relatively few studies to guide our under- standing of the developmental precursors of internal- izing problems in young children. Three main factors are related to these difficulties: (I) uncertainty about how to directly measure the internal mood and related symptoms in toddlers and preschool-age children; (2) lack of behavioral continuity in children's expression of internalizing problems from the toddler to school-age periods; and (3) lack of a theoretical framework by which the apparent discontinuities of mood and beha- vior can be linked across developmental periods at a conceptual level. By definition, the study of externaliz- April 28, 1997. From the Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Keenan is currently at the Department ofPsychiatry, University of Chicago. At the time of this study, Mr. Delliquadriand Ms. Giouannelli toere research assistants in the Department of Psychology, University ofPittsburgh. Thisstudy wassupportedby NIMH grant 34528 tv Dr. Shaw. The 5 data toere collected by Dr. Keenanas part of her doctoral dissertation. W't thank tb« studyparticipantsfir letting us watchand learnaboutftmi/y development. Reprint requests to Dr. Shaw. Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology Center; 6040EH, 4015 O'HaraStrut. University ofPittsburgh. Pittsburgh. PA 15260. 0890-8567/97/3612-1760/$0.300/0© 1997 by rhe American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiarry. ing disorders relies on identifiable externally expressed behaviors which appear to take the form of comparable child behaviors from the toddler to school-age periods (e.g., noncompliance, aggression) (Campbell, 1994; Keenan and Shaw, 1994; Shaw et al., 1994) and for which several investigators have generated develop- mental models beginning as early as infancy (Greenberg and Speltz, 1988; Hirschi, 1969; Shaw and Bell, 1993). In contrast, the study of young children's internalizing problems has been hindered by its inability to identify reliable early manifestations of the symptoms and scarcity of developmentally driven theoretical models. To begin to address some of these critical gaps in understanding, we examined correlates of early inter- nalizing symptoms with a sample of high-risk children followed from infancy to preschool age. The sample was initially selected and followed to investigate vulnerabil- ity versus resilience in the development of externalizing behavior problems. By utilizing the construct of emo- tion regulation, our goal was to test a developmentally driven theoretical model of the precursors of inter- nalizing disorders. The term "emotion regulation" has been defined in various ways. For the purposes of this study, emotion 1760 J. AM. ACAD. CHILD ADOLESC. PSYCHIATRY, 36:12. DECEMBER 1997