• We examined toddler language, irritability regulation, and maternal responsiveness. • Latent profile analysis identified three profiles/classes of children at age 1. • Latent class predicted 2-3-year-old tantrum-related impairment and vocabulary. • Language, irritability, and parenting co-occur in meaningful ways. In young children, language delays and dysregulated irritability frequently co-occur and increase the likelihood of subsequent sustained and impairing language and mental health disorders. The role of the parenting environment is also theorized as mutually beneficial for both early language and mental health, but the relationship between these three constructs has rarely been studied together. We used latent profile analysis to characterize co-occurring patterns of language, irritability regulation, and maternal responsiveness in a sample of 12-17-month-olds oversampled for irritability and language delay ( n = 335). We used indicators of child language (both expressive and receptive), child irritability regulation, and maternal responsiveness to identify distinct classes. Three classes emerged for these constructs with good model fit, termed Class 1, Developmentally On-Track (42 %); Class 2, Socioemotionally At-Risk (43 %); and Class 3, Developmentally At-Risk (15 %). Latent class membership at baseline significantly predicted functional outcomes at 2-3 years including tantrum-related impairment and child vocabulary. Findings underscore that early child language, irritability regulation, and parenting co-occur in meaningful ways. Multidimensional profiles of child development and responsive parenting may be informative for elucidating individual differences in developmental pathways. As these constructs can be measured in early life, prospective longitudinal research is needed to chart how these domains mutually influence each other over time. Implications for future research and application are also discussed.
Manning et al. (Thu,) studied this question.