A new questionnaire that assess caregiving regulation representations is presented as an important measure of parenting that contributes to the field with information on how mothers understand themselves as caregivers and their relationship with the child. Preliminary data from the WARM study – a longitudinal study that explores transmission of risk and resilience from mothers with SMI to their children – are presented, showing that mothers with SMI express more feelings of helpless and heigtened caregiving than non-clinical mothers in preganancy and in the early postnatal period from birth to 16 weeks. It is argued that as overactivation of emotional arousel normally is associated with mothers less able to regulate self and child , the PCEQ and CEQ could be useful and interesting measures that would allow for easy assessment and maybe screenng of vulnerable mothers and child-at-risk. More research on the associations between maternal behavior and caregiving regulation representations are needed, as well as research that explore the signifance of maternal characteristics, such as psyhopathology, for the development of caregiving representations.