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The reciprocal relationship between perceived Interparental conflict and internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors among left-behind children in China

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Abstract

Left-behind children’s internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors have become an important public health issue that may affect their well-being and mental health. Interparental conflict, a stronger and cannot be hidden family risk factor, is easily perceived by LBC and further affects LBC’s internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. Moreover, in LBC’s families, interparental conflict are more likely to occur due to the poor economic status and the low quality of communication and interaction between parents. However, no research has examined the relationship between perceived interparental conflict and LBC’s internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. Besides, previous research of the association between parents and children’s problem behaviors have been largely restricted to the unidirectional effect of parental traits on children. This study aimed to examine the reciprocal relationships between perceived interparental conflict and LBC’s internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors following a three-wave longitudinal design. A total of 660 LBC (442 boys and 218 girls) aged 8–11 years (Mage = 9.58, SDage = 0.67 at T1) in China completed a battery of questionnaires at three time points. The results indicated that perceived interparental conflicts positively predicted LBC’s internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. In turn, LBC’s internalizing problem behaviors exacerbated the perception of interparental conflicts. Furthermore, perceived interparental conflict mediated the longitudinal relation between LBC’s internalizing problem behaviors and externalizing problem behaviors. The findings provide evidence for the accumulating disadvantage for LBC that results from the mutual reinforcement of perceived interparental conflict and problem behaviors over time.

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Data Availability

The dataset analyzed during the current study is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project of Zhejiang Province, China (No. 22NDQN212YB) and the Major Project of Humanities and Social Sciences in universities of Zhejiang Province, China (No. 2021QN064). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of Zhejiang Provincial Social Science Planning Project and Zhejiang Provincial Major Humanities and Social Science Research Project. We are appreciative of the parents, children, and teachers who participated in our study and the people who assisted in data collection.

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  1. Die Wang & Xinyu Li

    Present address: Parent Education Research Center in Zhejiang Normal University, Key Laboratory of Intelligent Education Technology and Application of Zhejiang Province, Jinhua, 321004, China

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  1. Parent Education Research Center in Zhejiang Normal University, Key Laboratory of Intelligent Education Technology and Application of Zhejiang Province, Jinhua, 321004, China

    Ruibo Xie, Wan Ding & Weijian Li

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Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: WD, RX, DW and WL. Performed the experiments: WD. Analyzed the data: WD. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: WD, RX, DW, and XL.

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Correspondence to Ruibo Xie or Wan Ding.

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Wang, D., Xie, R., Ding, W. et al. The reciprocal relationship between perceived Interparental conflict and internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors among left-behind children in China. Curr Psychol 42, 15112–15121 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-02761-4

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