Toddler emotional states, temperamental traits, and their interaction: Associations with mothers’ and fathers’ parenting

• Toddler temperament and observed emotions were unrelated.
• Link between toddler emotion and parent negative affect depended on temperament.
• Link between toddler emotion and parent sensitivity did not depend on temperament.
• Link between toddler emotion and parent positive affect did not depend on temperament.

We investigated the degree to which toddlers’ observed emotional states, toddlers’ temperamental traits, and their interaction accounted for variance in mothers’ and fathers’ parenting. Main effects of two emotional states (positive emotion and negative emotion), three temperamental traits (negative affectivity, effortful control, and surgency) as well as state-by-trait interactions, were examined in relation to parental sensitivity, positive affect, and negative affect. The hypothesis that toddlers’ temperamental traits would moderate the association between their observed emotional states and parenting was partially supported. Significant state-by-trait interactions were found in models predicting the probability that mothers and fathers expressed negative affect toward their toddlers. For parental sensitivity and positive affect, only main effects of temperament and/or emotion expression accounted for variance in parenting.