positive affect cross-sectionally in a sample of 12-month old infants. They also found that father's alcoholism was associated with lower verbalizations and higher negative affect among fathers. Furthermore, Eiden, Edwards, and Leonard (2007) found that paternal alcohol use when children were 12 months old predicted lower maternal and paternal warmth and sensitivity when children were 2 years of age. That paternal alcoholism is associated with lower levels of parental warmth and sensitivity is important given that these behaviors are believed to be central to competent parenting and have important implications for child development (Grych, 2002). Research has shown that parental warmth longitudinally predicts children's effortful control (a temperamental characteristic contributing to emotion regulation) which in turn predicts low levels of externalizing behaviors (Eisenberg, Zhou, Spinrad, Valiente, Fabes, & Liew, 2005). Furthermore, warm sensitive parenting is also important for the development of emotional expressivity (Eisenberg, Zhou, Losoya, Fabes, & Shepard, 2003).
