Child Fearful Temperament Moderates Effects of Parenting on the Development of Children’s Guilt: An Investigation of Mother- and Father-Child Relationships

Emotion of guilt following transgressions is an important marker of adaptive early sociomoral development. Using behavioral data from 100 community families, we demonstrate that toddlers’ temperamental fearfulness and their mothers’ and fathers’ parenting predicted individual differences in guilt at 4.5-6.5 years. Additionally, as expected, fearfulness moderated the impact of parenting.