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Abstract
Internalising problems affect one in seven children in the population and show stability from the pre-school years. This longitudinal study sought to detail early childhood development of internalising difficulties in a community sample including a substantial proportion at risk because of family stress. Two recruitment phases, the first with wellfunctioning families, the second with stressed parents, provided the community sample of two-year-old children (N = 163), who were followed to four years (96% retention). Primary caregiving parents completed validated questionnaires measuring parenting practices, family stress, parent symptoms of anxiety-depression, and child inhibition and internalising difficulties. The direct predictors of young children's internalising difficulties were inhibition, as well as over-involved/protective and less warmengaged parenting. Family stress and parent anxiety depression predicted little variance in early childhood internalising difficulties independent of parenting practices. The key risks can be addressed in designing and trialling prevention programmes for child anxiety and depression.