Abstract: Children’s problem behaviors, which refer to behaviors that deviate from normal standards, including internalizing problems and externalizing problems, have received vast attention from the society and the academia for the past few years. Previous studies indicated that problem behaviors originating from early childhood have a continuous impact on individuals even when they are in adolescence or in adulthood, which will lead to more serious mental health problems or anti-social behaviors later. Compared with other grades, children show severer problem behaviors in middle childhood, which is a crucial period for children in elementary school to develop their self-awareness. Therefore, parental psychological control, a kind of excessive performance of parental upbringing, may greatly hinder the development of children’s independence and autonomy, resulting in children’s poor adaptation. The current study aimed to examine the association between parental psychological control and problem behaviors (internalizing and externalizing problems) of middle childhood children, and further to explore whether both paternal and maternal attachment would mediated the relations between parental psychological control and children’s problem behaviors. In addition, gender differences in the mechanisms were also discussed. 969 children (627 males, 342 female) who were in Grade 3 from three elementary schools in Anhui Province participated in the research. Among them, children aged from 9 to 10 take a large proportion. Using a longitudinal study, these children were asked to complete the Parental Control Questionnaire, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and Parent and Peer Attachment Questionnaire at two time points (spaced approximately 6 months apart). All the data were analyzed using SPSS Version 23.0 and Mplus Version 8.0. Firstly, descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were conducted with SPSS 23.0. Based on this, then, a structural equation model was established to examine the association among the key variables by using Mplus 8.0. The main results were as following: (1) both paternal and maternal psychological control could directly predict children’s problem behaviors, but paternal psychological control had a greater impact on externalizing problems while maternal psychological control showed a greater effect on internalizing problems; (2) paternal and maternal attachment mediated the relationship between parental psychological control and children’s problem behaviors; (3) paternal attachment only mediated the association between parental psychological control and boys’ problem behaviors whereas maternal attachment played a significant role among both boys and girls. The study sheds light on the associations among parental psychological control, parent-child attachment and problem behaviors of middle childhood children, deepening our understanding of children’s social adaptation related to parental negative upbringing and the potential mechanisms of parent-child relationships. The results in the current study support the self-determination theory, the attachment theory, the family system theory, and the specificity hypothesis, which provide new perspectives for intervention in children’s problem behaviors and future family education.

Key words: parental psychological control, problem behaviors, paternal attachment, maternal attachment, middle childhood

摘要： 基于家庭系统视角考察父母心理控制与童年中期儿童问题行为的纵向关系以及亲子依恋在其中的中介作用。结果表明，父亲和母亲心理控制均能正向预测儿童内外化问题，父亲心理控制对外化问题的预测作用更大，母亲心理控制对内化问题的预测作用更大；父子依恋和母子依恋在父母心理控制与儿童问题行为间起中介作用；母子依恋在男生和女生群体中都发挥着中介效应，而父子依恋只中介了父母心理控制与男生问题行为的关系。这一发现提示，未来的家庭教育应关注父亲和母亲教养对不同性别儿童发展的不同作用。

关键词: 父母心理控制, 问题行为, 父子依恋, 母子依恋, 童年中期