The Mediating Role of Harsh Parenting in the Association between Child Negative Emotionality and Behavioral Problems

Liu Yapeng; Deng Huihua; Liang Zongbao; Zhang Guangzhen

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240311

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Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2024, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (3) : 598-605. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240311

Developmental & Educational Psychology

The Mediating Role of Harsh Parenting in the Association between Child Negative Emotionality and Behavioral Problems

Liu Yapeng¹, Deng Huihua², Liang Zongbao², Zhang Guangzhen²

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Abstract

Behavioral problems are prevalent in preschoolers. Thus, exploring the developmental mechanisms of preschoolers’ behavioral problems is necessary and significant. As two core different characteristics of negative emotionality, distress to limitations and fearfulness are associated with child externalizing and internalizing problems, respectively. However, the possible mechanisms accounting for these relations remains an open question. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate whether maternal and paternal harsh parenting mediated the impact of toddlers’ distress to limitations and fearfulness on externalizing and internalizing problems at preschool age.
A diverse sample of 358 mother-father dyads with their 14-month-old toddlers participated in this study. They were randomly recruited from a Maternal and Child Health Hospital in Nanjing, Jiangsu. When children were 14 months old, mothers rated on child negative emotionality and the demographic information concerning age, gender, and parental education level. At 24 months, the mother and father reported their harsh parenting, respectively. Two years later, both parents reported preschoolers’ externalizing and internalizing problems. Initially, the study used SPSS 21.0 to analyze data. This study conducted the analyses of descriptive statistics to calculate the mean and standard deviation of main variables and the Pearson product-moment correlation to analyze inter-correlation coefficients among those variables. Finally, a structural equation model was conducted in the Mplus 8.70 to examine the mediating role of parental harsh parenting in the relationship between child negative emotionality and behavioral problems after controlling demographic information.
Findings were as follows: (1) The distress to limitations positively and significantly predicted maternal rather than paternal harsh parenting (β_m= .17, pm < .01; β_f= .12, p_f > .05). However, fearfulness showed no significant correlation with both maternal and paternal harsh parenting (β_m= .07, β_f= .01, ps > .05). (2) Maternal harsh parenting positively and significantly predicted preschoolers’ externalizing problems (β= .23, p < .05), while paternal harsh parenting positively and significantly predicted preschoolers’ internalizing problems (β = .13, p < .05). (3) Maternal harsh parenting played partly mediating effect in the associations of distress to limitations with externalizing problems. More specifically, the distress to limitations not only influenced externalizing problems directly (β = .13, t = 2.11, p < .05), but also by relating to maternal harsh parenting ( .17× .23= .04, Sobel Z=2.03, p < .05). Moreover, although the mediating effect of parents’ harsh parenting in the association between fearfulness and internalizing problems was not significant (γ = .01, t = .73, p > .05), the fearfulness influenced internalizing problems directly (β = .12, t = 2.03, p < .05).
In sum, the finding that maternal but not paternal harsh parenting mediated the impact of distress to limitations on externalizing problems revealed that if mothers can react to toddlers’ distress to limitations in an appropriate way, the incidences of later externalizing problems of children will decrease. It corroborates the importance of furnishing mothers who have difficulties in dealing with their toddlers’ distress to limitations in daily life with effective guidance for family education. It also underscored the relation between child and maternal parenting in influencing preschoolers’ behavioral development is bilateral and interactive. Moreover, the results also revealed that the mechanism of fearfulness on internalizing problems is distinct from that of distress to limitations on externalizing problems.

Key words

distress to limitations / fearfulness / behavioral problems / harsh parenting

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Liu Yapeng, Deng Huihua, Liang Zongbao, Zhang Guangzhen. The Mediating Role of Harsh Parenting in the Association between Child Negative Emotionality and Behavioral Problems[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2024, 47(3): 598-605 https://doi.org/10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240311

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