Maternal emotion dysregulation and physiological concordance in mother‐preschooler dyads

Maternal emotional and physiological dysregulation has been found to influence child stress physiology. This study characterizes diurnal cortisol and basal heart rate variability (HRV) patterns in a predominately high‐risk sample of mothers with a full range of emotion dysregulation and assessed the magnitude of concordance (N = 68 mother‐preschooler dyads). Overall, dyads exhibited concordance in evening salivary cortisol levels, but not for morning levels or HRV. Maternal emotion dysregulation was associated with maternal and child evening cortisol levels, child morning cortisol levels, and maternal HRV. Bootstrapping analyses showed that maternal emotion dysregulation was associated with higher child evening cortisol levels through its impact on mother evening cortisol levels. This study offers preliminary evidence for understanding child stress physiology and dyadic concordance in a sample of mothers with a range of emotion regulation capabilities. Highlights Maternal physiology may explain the association between maternal emotion dysregulation and child physiological patterns. Emotionally dysregulated mothers were oversampled and mothers and children's heart rate variability and cortisol were collected, with findings showing dyadic concordance in evening cortisol. This work highlights the importance of transdiagnostic approaches for examining concordance and child stress physiology.