Children’s negative emotionality, like their EC, was substantially related to their maladjustment. Children high in anger were prone to pure externalizing and co-occurring problems, especially the latter, although children with internalizing problems were also somewhat prone to anger. Moreover, change in anger was related in predictable ways to change in both internalizing and externalizing problems. Evidence that anger/frustration predicted EXT versus INT status was weak. However, the associations of anger with internalizing and externalizing problems may be due to different processes. The association of internalizing problems with anger appears to develop with age (see Eisenberg, Sadovsky, et al., 2005), perhaps as a reaction to increasing peer rejection or failure to act in accordance with adults’ changing expectations (e.g., in regard to being assertive). In contrast, the pattern of association between externalizing problems and anger/frustration is evident from a fairly young age (e.g., Eisenberg et al., 2001; Gilliom et al., 2002), and it is quite possible that intense and/or frequent anger contributes to externalizing problems for some children. If this reasoning is correct, modifications in the social environment may be especially likely to diminish the likelihood of internalizing children developing maladaptive anger.
