Journal of Family Issues 1–24 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0192513X15597290 jfi.sagepub.com Article The Moderating Effects of Maternal Age at Childbirth and Emotion Dysregulation on the Intergenerational Continuity of Emotionally Unsupportive Parenting Behaviors Courtney McCullough 1 , Zhuo Rachel Han 2 , Diana Morelen 3 , and Anne Shaffer 1 Abstract Little research has investigated factors that may moderate the intergenerational transmission of emotionally unsupportive parenting behaviors. The present study examined the role of two moderators, emotion dysregulation and maternal age at childbirth, on the relation between maternal childhood history of emotional maltreatment and current observations of emotionally unsupportive parenting behaviors in 64 mother–child dyads. Results indicated that mothers who were younger at childbirth seemed more likely to engage in emotionally unsupportive parenting behaviors in the context of high levels of sustained childhood emotional maltreatment, regardless of their level of emotion dysregulation. Mothers who were older at childbirth were at high risk for emotionally unsupportive parenting behaviors in the context of 1 University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA 2 Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China 3 Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI, USA Corresponding Author: Zhuo Rachel Han, Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Email: rachhan@bnu.edu.cn 597290JFI XX X 10.1177/0192513X15597290Journal of Family IssuesMccullough et al. research-article 2015 by guest on July 27, 2015 jfi.sagepub.com Downloaded from