Abstract: Abstract Much research indicated that maternal negative emotion was associated with children’s behavioral outcomes. However, a major limitation of the literature is that hypotheses have been largely restricted to parent-driven effects, and the limited research focusing on child-driven effects has been primarily based on clinical samples. On the one hand, it is unclear as to the extent to which the findings from clinical samples can be generalized to the normal developmental samples. On the other hand, it is also difficult to tell whether the small variability in the behavior of normal developmental children could lead to maternal different negative emotion and the small variability in the maternal negative emotion could also lead to different children’s externalizing behavior. Moreover, home environmental quality may play an important role in parent-child interaction. As one important dimension of the home environment, the home chaos may moderate the intensity of the relationship between maternal negative emotion and children's externalizing problem behavior. Therefore, the first aim of this study was to investigate the bidirectional relationship between children’s externalizing problem behavior and maternal negative emotion among normal developmental preschool children in China through a one -year longitudinal study. The second aim was to explore whether home chaos would act as a moderator in above relation. A total of 251 Chinese preschoolers (49% boys) and their mothers participated at two time points: spring 2015(T1) and spring 2016(T2). Strength and Difficulty Questionnaires was used to measure children’s externalizing problem behavior, and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale was used to measure the maternal negative emotion, and Confusion, Hubbub and Order Scale was used to assess the home chaos level. The results from cross-lagged models indicated that (1) after the family socioeconomic status and child gender were controlled, maternal negative emotions and children's externalizing problem behavior maintained high stability across two years, and children's externalizing problem behavior at T1 positively predicted maternal negative emotions at T2. However, maternal negative emotions at T1 cannot predict children's externalizing problem behavior at T2; (2) home chaos significantly moderated the effects of children's externalizing problem behavior at T1 on the maternal negative emotions at T2, but did not moderate the effects of maternal negative emotion at T1 on children’s externalizing problem behavior at T2. Specifically, compared with those in the low-chaos families, children’s externalizing problem behavior would more strongly predict maternal negative emotions one year later in the high-chaos families. In addition, home chaos also moderated the stability of children’s externalizing problem behavior, the higher the home chaos, the more stable the children’s externalizing problem behavior over two years. In conclusions, the relationship between maternal negative emotions and young children's externalizing problem behavior is mainly manifested as child-driven effects, and the home chaos could moderate such relationship.

Key words: negative emotion, externalizing problem behavior,, home chaos, bidirectional relationship

摘要： 摘 要 对251名学前儿童及母亲进行一年的追踪来考察母亲负性情绪与学前儿童外化问题之间的关系及这一关系是否受到家庭嘈杂度的影响。结果: (1) T1儿童外化问题能正向预测T2母亲负性情绪，而T1母亲负性情绪对T2儿童外化问题的预测不显著；(2)与低嘈杂家庭相比，高嘈杂家庭中儿童外化问题对母亲负性情绪的预测作用更强，且儿童外化问题也更为稳定。结论：母亲负性情绪与儿童外化问题的关系主要表现为儿童效应，且这一效应受到家庭环境的调节。

关键词: 负性情绪, 外化问题行为, 家庭嘈杂度, 双向关系