**2. Regulation, attachment and child emotional functioning**

Affect regulation is defined as the process of initiating, sustaining, modulating or changing the occurrence, intensity or duration of internal feeling states and emotion-related physiological processes [38]. Simpson and Belsky suggested that emotion regulation strategies are evolutionary adaptive as they guide the child's capacity to cope with various rearing environments [39]. In attachment infancy studies, a large amount of existing interdisciplinary data suggested that attachment communications are critical to the development of structural right brain neurobiological system, encompassing processes of emotion, stress modulation, self-regulation and thereby the functional origins of the bodily based implicit self [40]. In this context, the theoretical implications of cognitive antecedents and correlates of emotions in affect regulation are highly interrelated [40, 41]. Adding, the central role of affect regulation in child development corresponds with the developmental and neurobiological notions of differential susceptibility [40]. Hence, Schore and Schore proposed a profoundly developmental approach conceptualising the *Regulation Theory* as an amalgam of Bowlby's attachment theory, updated internal object relations theories, self-psychology and contemporary relational theory [40]. This notion takes into regard the individual's subjective trajectory of emotional growth as well as contextual influences, including differences in family dynamics and cultural variations [40, 42]. Notably, the developmental pathway in middle and late childhood years underlie the expanding roles of family, social community and other environmental factors [42, 43]. Children at this age group enter the 'age of reason' by developing their own identity through processes of more flexible thinking, self-awareness and identifying and understanding others' feelings or emotional states [43]. Nevertheless, little attention has been given to assessing regulation during the middle and late years of childhood [43].

*Parenting - Studies by an Ecocultural and Transactional Perspective*

over the individual's lifespan [5, 13].

positive or negative consequences [14].

problems, pointing out fear, anxiety and depression as main correlates with personality traits in youth and adulthood. Fundamental research highlighted that abnormal or deficient emotional responding is considered to be the key measure for personality traits across development [2]. Empirical evidence has also indicated that the increase or decrease in personality traits across development is associated with

on individuals' development through predisposing, precipitating, perpetuating and predictive risk factors that include the characteristics of the individual (i.e. neuropsychological deficits, autonomic irregularities and temperamental traits) as well as the characteristics of the individual's social context (i.e. peer rejection, family dysfunction, neighbourhood disorganisation and family socioeconomic status) [4]. Notably, research has documented the increased prevalence of personality traits in the general population, youth in particular [5, 6]. The relevant literature identified these traits through adult measures underscored by the criteria proposed for a callous-unemotional (CU) specifier to conduct disorders in DSM-5 [7]. The evidence in research demonstrated that stability subtypes of CU behaviours in children and adolescents represent developmental precursors of adult personality traits [8–10], defining CU behaviours in children as a circumscribed facet of adult personality traits associated with a persistent pattern of behaviour that reflects lack of empathy, lack of remorse and shallow or deficient affect [10]. However, the literature specific to assess the heterogeneity of distinct aetiologies and developmental pathways to CU behaviours is sparse [11, 12]. The existing research partially explains the association of personality traits with developmental theoretical assertions, which informs our understanding of the deficits in the ability to form close interpersonal attachments

From a developmental point of view, psychopathic traits can have a patent impact

Notably, recent theories point out that the affective-interpersonal facet might result from an inborn deficit, whereas the behavioural-lifestyle facet might be more under the influence of environmental risk factors like neglecting or abusive parenting [14]. Whereas such theorising remains somewhat speculative and is in need of rigorous empirical testing, there is a preliminary evidence in support of a differential aetiology underlying the affective-interpersonal and behaviourallifestyle facets. Bowlby's theory of parent-child attachment paved the way for scientific studies to explore the significant implications of the early disruptions in attachment relationships to explain affectionless traits [12]. For theoretical and empirical purposes, attachment approaches suggest that attachment disorganisation is a potential marker of vulnerability to later mental health disorders, and the construction of the attachment framework is commonly used to assess underlying interpersonal mechanisms through developmental trajectories that can predict the development of personality traits. Across developmental and behaviour research, Fearon et al. conducted a meta-analysis to examine the significance of how insecure and disorganised attachments increase the risk for externalising problems [15]. Critically, evidence depicted that CU behaviours are not immediately related to avoidant attachment representations; nevertheless, insecure attachment representations evoke conduct problems that show a robust association with CU behaviours [12, 13, 15]. Accumulative research has identified that deficits in fear recognition and dysfunction of empathy processing are particularly prevalent with research utilising measures of CU behaviour [16]. Relevant longitudinal studies have

contributed to emphasise the influence of the reciprocal process between the parent and child to imply the predictive impact that delineates individuals' chances to

Relatedly, research has demonstrated that quality of sibling relationships are correlated with individual's personality development and psychosocial adjustment,

similar changes in contextual, behavioural and individual problems [3].

**20**

According to Brumariu, parent-child attachment offers a meaningful context for emotion socialisation [43]. The theoretical link between parent-child attachment and affect regulation underlies the child's ability to activate positive or negative responses to emotionally provoking situations [43]. In this context, securely attached children internalise effective emotional regulation strategies within parental attachment relationships and have the ability to successfully employ adaptive emotion regulation strategies in other relationships, such as with siblings and friends [40, 43]. In contrast, insecure attached children are conceptualised in three patterns: (a) ambivalently attached children depict a hyper-activating stance of affect regulation by a heightening display of negative emotions, ostensibly in an effort to gain attention due to their low confidence and negative expectations of their parents and other people [43, 44]; (b) avoidantly attached children depict a hypo-activating stance of affect regulation by a minimising display of negative emotions, ostensibly through emotional suppression or deactivation as defence mechanisms to cope with attachment figures who cannot tolerate attachment behaviours [40, 44] and (c) finally, disorganised attached children miss the opportunity to learn how to mitigate their distress due to their coping with caregivers' alternating patterns of hostile behaviour, role-reversing, misattuned affect and/ or detachment [45], therefore, these children lack the appropriate development of emotional regulation strategies [40, 43].

The empirical links between parent-child attachment and child affect regulation mainly evaluate child emotional functioning in four aspects: (a) emotion understanding/awareness of the self and others; (b) emotional experiences and expressions within or outside the parent-child relationship; (c) ways of regulating emotions/coping strategies and (d) and the overall broad construct of emotion regulation [43]. Evidence-based research demonstrated that the quality of parent-child attachment relationship is a key environmental determinant to child affect regulation and adjustment [40, 43]. Bakermans-Kranenburg and van IJzendoorn, Pluess and Belsky and Belsky pointed out the significant role of parental influences, including parenting skills in children's susceptibility [46–48]. In this context, forming secure parental attachment, encompassing characteristics of relational engagement, parental supervision, acceptance and support allow the child to develop secure and safe experiences with the parent, and in turn, a secure attachment bond can promote positive child emotional functioning and reduce behavioural problems [40, 41]. In contrast, insecure parental attachments underlie parent-child distress and predict internalising and externalising problems during childhood development [40, 43, 49].
