The Relationship between?3~4-Year-Old Children’ s Temperament and Parenting Style: A Two Wave Longitudinal Study

Liu Wen, Guo Xin, Zhang Jiaqi, Hu Wenwen

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2023, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (3) : 578-585.

PDF(1248 KB)
PDF(1248 KB)
Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2023, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (3) : 578-585.

The Relationship between?3~4-Year-Old Children’ s Temperament and Parenting Style: A Two Wave Longitudinal Study

  • Liu Wen1, Guo Xin1, Zhang Jiaqi1, Hu Wenwen2
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Abstract

Temperament is a biology-based difference in individual reactivity and self-regulation, which is an important indicator of children's personality and social development. As children develop socialized, they can be modified by behavioral conditioning. Both family system theory and ecological systems theory emphasize that family is the main factor affecting children's development in individual development, especially in parenting. Parenting style refers to the attitude and behavioral tendency that parents show when educating and raising their children. The Transactional Model states that children and parents influence each other dynamically. In this process, the influence of children on parents is equally important as that of parents on children. The two-way relationship between children's temperament and parenting behavior may constitute an interactive and potential causal development path of children's adaptation in a wider developmental context. However, parenting does not happen in isolation, and child characteristics, such as temperament, might shape or evoke parenting behaviors. In turn, parenting behaviors might shape children's temperament, with this transaction between parenting and temperament contributing to children's adjustment. Examination of the relations between temperament and parenting can clarify their unique, additive, and bidirectional relations and elucidate developmental pathways to child adjustment. Throughout the previous studies, most of them examine the unilateral effect of children's temperament or parenting style, and most of them are reflected in the influence of parenting style on the socialization of children's temperament. There are relatively few longitudinal studies on the bidirectional relationship between children's temperament and parenting, and existing studies on the bidirectional relationship generally focus on specific parenting behaviors rather than on more generalized parenting style. Therefore, from the perspective of the developmental Transactional Model, this study will explore the bidirectional relationship between children's temperament and parenting style by using cross-lagged research method. In this study, a total of 293 3~4-year-old children were longitudinal?investigation by questionnaire for one year, two measurements were taken during the period. Children's Temperament Teacher Assessment Questionnaire and Parental Authority Questionnaire were distributed and filled in respectively to children's teachers and parents. All the measures were reliable and valid. SPSS 22.0 and Mplus 7.4 were used to analyze the data. A cross-lagged model was used to investigate the reciprocal relationship between children's temperament and parenting style. The results indicated as follows: there was a significant correlation between the dimensions of temperament and parenting style. Cross-lagged regression results indicated that Time 1 emotionality and concentration of children's temperament could significantly and negatively predict Time 2 mother's doting parenting style. Time 1 maternal doting parenting style negatively predicted the Time 2 activity of children's temperament; the activity of children's temperament and paternal authoritarian parenting style can predict each other, but the influence of paternal authoritarian parenting style on children's temperament activity is greater. Time 1 concentration of children's temperament negatively predicts Time 2 paternal authoritative parenting style, and Time 1 social inhibition negatively predicts Time 2 paternal doting parenting style. The research reveals that there is not only a significant correlation between children's temperament and parenting style at the same time but also a significant relationship with the development of time. This reminds us that children's temperament and parenting style is a dynamic interaction, which plays an important role in exploring the development trajectory of children.

Key words

temperament / parenting style / preschool children / cross-lagged analysis

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Liu Wen, Guo Xin, Zhang Jiaqi, Hu Wenwen. The Relationship between?3~4-Year-Old Children’ s Temperament and Parenting Style: A Two Wave Longitudinal Study[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2023, 46(3): 578-585
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