Child depression is a serious mental health concern affecting millions of children and their families each year. Although research has yet to identify the etiological mechanisms responsible, findings suggest that emotion regulation deficits that emerge as a result of atypical socialization experiences in the parent-child relationship may place children at risk for depression. The present study was designed to examine the relations between maternal socialization of emotion, child emotion regulation, and child depression in a community sample of African American mother-child dyads. In particular, it was hypothesized that low levels of maternal validation and high levels of maternal invalidation would predict child depression and that deficits in adaptive emotion regulation would mediate the relation between maternal socialization of emotion and child depression. Consistent with hypotheses, maternal socialization predicted child depression. However, findings did not support the proposed relation between emotion regulation and child depression.