Understanding the Relationships between Diverse Family Structures and the Development of Emotion Regulation of Mexican Origin Children: Population-Based Estimates

Aggie J. Noah, Pennsylvania State University

Using a nationally representative sample of children in 2001 from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), the study investigates the relationship between family structures - both nuclear and extended family structures - and child’s emotional regulation for Mexican origin children. The study finds that the influences of family structures on children’s emotion regulation across racial and ethnic groups differ. Specifically, for U.S. born children of U.S. born Mexican parents, residing in vertically extended family structures (i.e., with grandparents) is negatively associated with children’s emotion regulation whereas residing in horizontally extended family structures (i.e., with aunt or uncle) is positively associated with children’s emotion regulation. Empirical findings of this study indicate that designing group-specific policy for children’s emotion regulation development would be especially helpful.