Parental Psychological Flexibility and Children's Behavior Problems in Rural Areas in Northeast China: The Mediation of Children's Emotion Regulation

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 19; no. 23; p. 15788
• Main Authors: Ren, Xiaoling, Ren, Xiaoying, Yan, Zhonglian, Lu, Songhan, Zhou, Xiaohan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 27.11.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Antisocial personality disorder; Anxiety disorders; Behavior; Behavior problems; Caregivers; Child; Children; China - epidemiology; Chronic pain; Cognitive development; Education; Emotional behavior; Emotional Regulation; Emotions; Families & family life; Female; Flexibility; Humans; Male; Mental depression; Neurosciences; Parents & parenting; Preschool children; Problem Behavior; Random sampling; Rural areas; Self control; Social research; Socialization; Software; Stability; Statistical sampling; Surveys and Questionnaires; Sustainable development; System theory; China; rural preschoolers; children’s emotion regulation; children’s behavior problems; parental psychological flexibility
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph192315788

Children's behavior problems are not conducive to their sustainable development. Therefore, it is of great value to explore the mechanism of relevant influencing factors on the behavior problems of rural preschoolers. This study aimed to reveal the direct effect of parental psychological flexibility on children's behavior problems and the mediating effect of children's emotion regulation. Based on simple random sampling, 355 caregivers (male = 31.25 years, SD = 9.78; 74.08% females; 9.01% bachelor degree) were recruited from eight rural kindergartens in three provinces in northeast China. With questionnaires, caregivers reported their parental psychological flexibility and assessed their children's emotion regulation and behavior problems. SPSS 25.0 software was used for statistical data analysis. The results support our hypotheses, suggesting that parental psychological flexibility, emotional stability, and emotional regulation negatively predicted children's externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. Meanwhile, emotional stability and regulation partially mediated the relationship between parental psychological flexibility and children's externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. These findings provide a new perspective for preventing and intervening in preschoolers' behavior problems.