The relationships between child temperament and emotion regulation characteristics, mother's parenting stress and internalizing problems among 8-13 ages children who attended psychiatric outpatient unit

In this study, to understand the nature of internalizing problems in childhood, the relationship between internalizing problems with temperament and character, parenting stress and emotion regulation were investigated. For this purpose 33 children who admitted to Gazi University Child and Adolescense Mental Health Department and a private psychiatry center and their mothers were included to study. These children were diagnosed with depression, anxiety disorder or obsessive compulsive disorder. Children completed only Junior Temperament and Character Inventory while mothers completed Demographic Information Form, Parenting Stress Index and Children Behavior Checklist. Obtained data were analyzed by correlation analysis, MANOVA and regression analysis. According to correlation analysis, internalizing problems are associated with harm avoidance temperament dimension, parenting stress, and emotion regulation level. Additionally variance analysis showed that gender of the child and parents' psychiatric treatment condition have not significant effect on any of these variables. Finally, regression analysis revealed that harm avoidance temperament dimension and child's experience of change in mood and emotional intensity predicts internalizing problems.