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Attention to affect is theoretically a precursor to one's ideal affect (i.e., preference for feeling low‐ and high‐arousal positive and negative affect) and emotion regulation (ER). In schizotypy, there have been mixed findings regarding abnormalities in attention to affect. At the same time, little is known about ideal affect in schizotypy or whether differences in ideal affect or ER difficulties in schizotypy are driven by attention to affect. Thus, this study aimed to identify shared and unique abnormalities in attention to affect, ideal affect, and ER difficulties in schizotypy, and to test whether attention to affect underlies differences in ideal affect and ER difficulties. Using groups of individuals with either extreme levels of social anhedonia (SocAnh; n = 181), extreme levels of perceptual aberrations/magical ideation (PerMag; n = 105), or individuals low on both (i.e., controls; n = 531), we tested group differences in attention to affect, ideal affect, and ER difficulties. Our findings suggest both shared and unique affective abnormalities; compared to controls, the SocAnh group paid the least attention to positive affect. Only PerMag had heightened attention to negative affect compared to controls. Additionally, we found unique abnormalities relating to ideal affect but mostly shared difficulties in ER in schizotypy. Abnormalities in ideal affect and ER remain largely consistent after accounting for attention to affect for PerMag, suggesting that attention to affect is not the primary mechanism driving these abnormalities. However, we found evidence that attention to affect underlies some SocAnh–control group differences in ideal affect and ER difficulties. Our work helps to clarify prior work and contributes to the understanding of shared and unique affective abnormalities in schizotypy. Future research may consider longitudinal approaches to test causal mechanisms of affective abnormalities in schizotypy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parental reflective functioning (RF), the ability to consider the child's behavior as a function of mental states (cognitions, emotions), is theorized to promote emotion regulation in children via its positive impact on parenting sensitivity. Using a sample of mothers and toddlers (N = 151 dyads; 41% Latinx; 54% girls; MAge = 21 months; SDAge = 2.5 months), we measured mothers' self‐reported RF (high RF = low certainty/high interest–curiosity/low prementalizing), toddlers' distress during a standardized challenging behavioral task (toy removal), and three methods of children's coping with distress. Then, we tested whether RF moderated the association between children's observed distress and coping during the task (mother‐directed adaptive coping, task‐directed adaptive coping, maladaptive aggression) as an index of emotion regulation. Although RF was not associated with toddlers' distress, indices of RF moderated the associations between distress and coping. As maternal RF increased, the positive association between toddler distress and mother‐oriented behavior increased, whereas the association between toddler distress and child aggression decreased. Findings were present only for certainty of mental states, whereas no effects were present for prementalizing or interest/curiosity. We discuss these findings in terms of their contributions to theory regarding parent–child relationships, maternal RF, and child emotion regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]