Longitudinal associations between maternal warmth, harsh discipline, child emotion regulation, and dimensions of oppositional defiant disorder in the early school years

Current evidence suggests robust associations between parental warmth and harsh discipline and ODD. However, research has yet to investigate the potential mediating role of emotion regulation in this relationship. Further, few studies have investigated ODD as both a unitary construct and as three distinct dimensions (i.e., angry/irritable mood, defiant/headstrong behaviour, and spitefulness/vindictiveness). This study aimed to investigate child emotion regulation as a mediator between parental warmth and harsh discipline and ODD. Differential outcomes corresponding to individual ODD dimensions were further explored. While results demonstrated an absence of indirect effects, emotion regulation was significantly negatively associated with ODD at all levels of analyses. Significant associations were also found between parental warmth and harsh discipline and anger. These findings suggest unique associations between parental warmth, harsh discipline, emotion regulation, and the anger dimension of ODD.