Major models of the interpersonal origins of the internalizing problems of anxiety and depression focus on the role of childhood caregiving experiences (Burbach & Bourduin, 1986; Duggal, Carlson, Sroufe, & Egeland, 2001; Hammen, 1992; Kendler, Gardner, & Prescott, 2002; Moffitt et al., 2007; Toth, Manly, & Cicchetti, 1992). Multiple psychological and biological processes are implicated in this association. For example, inconsistent or inadequate early caregiving sets into motion maladaptive beliefs concerning the value of the self and the supportiveness of others that can render individuals vulnerable to subsequent internalizing symptoms (Beck, 1967; Bowlby, 1969/1982, 1980; Brown & Harris, 1978; Hammen, 1992). On a biological level, insensitive or unresponsive early caregiving that fails to modulate the emotional arousal of the infant may perturb the development of the physiological and neurobiological systems that support adaptive emotion functioning later in life (Hofer, 1994; Schore, 2001, 2005).
