Maternal parenting stress and social-emotional problems of Chinese preschoolers: The role of the mother-child relationship and maternal adverse childhood experiences

Previous research suggests that maternal parenting stress is a significant predictor of social-emotional problems in children. However, little is known regarding the mother-child relationship and the effect of maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on this association. Three waves of longitud...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of affective disorders 2024-04, Vol.350, p.188-196
Main Authors: Jia, Liyuan, Zhang, Zhixian, Li, Ruoyu, Zha, Jinhong, Fang, Peifei, He, Haiyan, Wan, Yuhui
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adverse Childhood Experiences
China
Emotions
Female
Humans
Maternal education level
Mediator
Moderator
Mother-Child Relations - psychology
Mother-child relationship
Mothers - psychology
Parenting - psychology
Parenting stress
Social-emotional development
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Summary:Previous research suggests that maternal parenting stress is a significant predictor of social-emotional problems in children. However, little is known regarding the mother-child relationship and the effect of maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on this association. Three waves of longitudinal panel data were collected from 2893 Chinese preschoolers with a follow-up interval of 6 months. The mothers of preschoolers were asked to complete anonymous questionnaires concerning demographic variables, maternal ACEs and parenting stress in Wave 1, mother-child relationships in Wave 2, and children's social-emotional problems in Wave 3. The parallel mediation model was conducted to analyze the mediating role of three dimensions of mother-child relationships, and the moderation model was conducted to examine the moderating role of maternal ACEs. The results showed that maternal parenting stress predicted children's social-emotional problems directly or indirectly through the mother-child relationship, with an intimate mother-child relationship mediating this main effect negatively but a conflicted and dependent mother-child relationship mediating this main effect positively. In addition, moderating results indicated that the main effect of maternal parenting stress on children's social-emotional problems was more marked among participants with at least one maternal ACEs than those without maternal ACEs. Furthermore, the moderating effect was only detected in children whose mothers had a high school education or less. The subjectivity of mothers' reports may somewhat reduce the credibility due to the possible overestimation or underestimation of children's social-emotional problems. These findings provide new evidence for the effects of maternal parenting stress on children's social-emotional development and highlight the need for more attention to children with mothers having ACE exposure, lower educational level and poor parent-child relationships. •There is a paucity of literature assessing social-emotional problems in Chinese preschool children. This study assessed social-emotional development in preschool children in Anhui Province, China, using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social Emotions, Second Edition (ASQ:SE2), which has been shown to be a standard screening tool to identify children who may have delayed or atypical social-emotional development.•This study is the first to examine the mediating role of mother-child relationships and the mode
ISSN:0165-0327
1573-2517
DOI:10.1016/j.jad.2024.01.110