Emotion regulation (ER) difficulties in early childhood are considered potential predictors of later psychopathology, particularly in children of mothers with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). This multicenter study examined ER in children of mothers with BPD (C-BPD), children of mothers with anxiety and/or depressive disorders, and children of mentally healthy mothers (N = 318; age six months–six years). We hypothesized that C-BPD would display more frequent and prolonged maladaptive ER strategies than the other groups. ER was assessed via behavioral observations, analyzing latency, frequency, duration, and variability. Contrary to expectations, children in all groups primarily used adaptive ER strategies, and no significant associations were found between maternal psychopathology and children’s ER. Exploratory analyses indicated age-specific, developmentally typical differences in ER strategy use. These findings contribute to the literature on ER in C-BPD and highlight the need for longitudinal studies to clarify how early ER patterns may influence later psychopathological outcomes.

Dataset for analyses (double coding; dataset single codes); the codebook contains information for both datasets.

Dataset for: Bunz, M., Derhardt, R., Seehagen, S., Heinrichs, N., Kumsta, R., Renneberg, B., & Schneider, S. (in press). Emotion regulation in young children of mothers with borderline personality disorder: A transgenerational perspective. Development and Psychopathology, 1–13, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579426101345