Two-child mothers’ parenting stress and children’s social competence: a chain mediating model

Qian, Guoying; Mei, Jin; Jiang, Suo; Tian, Li

doi:10.1007/s12144-022-03117-8

Published: 27 April 2022

Two-child mothers’ parenting stress and children’s social competence: a chain mediating model

Current Psychology (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Since 2011, China has gradually moved from a one-child policy to a comprehensive two-child policy, and this year implemented a three-child policy. In this context, the situation faced by parents has also changed, which has led to more pressure to raise children. This study explored the relationships among mothers’ parenting stress, maternal warmth, preschool children’s social competence, and their sibling relationships. Whether the pressure affect social competence, and whether the sibling relationships and maternal warmth play a chain-mediating role in the relationships. In this study, data were collected in two periods. The second survey was conducted one year later. This study included 180 preschool children and their mothers. The results revealed that mothers’ parenting stress negatively predicted children’s social competence and behavior. Sibling relationships and maternal warmth had a significant chain mediation effect on mothers’ parenting stress and children’s sensitive cooperation and anger attacks. The results suggests mothers’ parenting stress increased, the maternal warmth behavior decreased, sibling hostility increased, then children expressed less sensitive cooperation and increased anger and aggressive behavior.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was supported by the Project of the Municipal Science and Technology Commission of Beijing, China (19530050130), Capacity Building for Sci-Tech Innovation-Fundamental Scientific Research Funds (19530050186), the Social Science General Project (SM202010028010), and by the 2016 Key Youth Project of Humanities and Social Science Projects of Higher Education in Zhejiang Province (2016QN018).We also express our appreciation to the staff of the Infant and Child Learning and Developmental Lab at the College of Preschool Education, Capital Normal University.

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Authors and Affiliations

College of Preschool Education, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100048, China
Guoying Qian & Jin Mei
Department of Applied Psychology, College of Psychiatry, Wenzhou Medical University, Chashan Street, Wenzhou, 325035, Zhejiang Province, China
Suo Jiang
School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, 105 Xi San Huan North Road, Beijing, 100048, China
Li Tian

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Guoying Qian
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Jin Mei
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Suo Jiang
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Li Tian
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Guoying Qian, Jin Mei. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Guoying Qian, Jin Mei, Suo Jiang and Li Tian, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Qian, G., Mei, J., Jiang, S. et al. Two-child mothers’ parenting stress and children’s social competence: a chain mediating model. Curr Psychol (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03117-8

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Accepted: 15 April 2022
Published: 27 April 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03117-8

Keywords

Two-child family
Preschool children
Parenting stress
Maternal warmth
Sibling relationships
Social competence