Maternal Parenting and Preschoolers’ Psychosocial Adjustment: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Previous research reported that positive parenting and parenting stress might impact children’s psychosocial adjustment. The current longitudinal study aimed at evaluating the associations over time between mothers’ positive parenting, their parenting stress, and their preschoolers’ social–emotional competence and emotional–behavioral difficulties. Participants were 53 Italian mothers, aged between 24 and 47 years (M = 35.30, SD = 5.28) at T0, and their children (females = 51%), aged between 3 and 6 years (M = 4.48, SD = 0.84) at T0. Mothers completed self-report scales at 2 time points (with a 2-year lag). An autoregressive cross-lagged model was tested that had a good fit to the data, χ2(6) = 3.37 ns, CFI = 1.00, RMSEA = 0.00. The results showed that maternal positive parenting at T0 negatively predicted maternal parenting stress at T1; maternal parenting stress at T0 negatively predicted children’s social–emotional competence at T1. Moreover, at each time point, children’s social–emotional competence was associated positively with maternal positive parenting and negatively with maternal parenting stress; children’s emotional–behavioral difficulties were positively associated with maternal parenting stress. The results confirm that interactions with mothers are fundamental for children’s psychosocial adjustment. Implications for research and practice aimed at reducing parenting stress and fostering positive parenting are discussed.

Maternal Parenting Practices and Psychosocial Adjustment of Primary School Children

“…Maternal parenting practices have generally been found to have a strong impact on children's psychosocial adjustment (Cucinella et al 2022), but the role that different maternal parenting styles might play on children's outcomes is still unclear. In order to fill this gap, the general purpose of the current study was to investigate the associations between positive, punitive, and negative/inconsistent maternal parenting practices and the psychosocial adjustment of Italian primary school-aged children.…”

Terapi Regulasi Emosi Untuk Mengelola Stres Ibu Dengan Anak Pra-Sekolah

“…Stres yang dialami oleh ibu dapat memiliki dampak negatif pada kesehatan fisik dan mental, interaksi dengan anakanak, hubungan dengan pasangan, dan produktivitas kerja (Aizer et al, 2012;Farrell et al, 2017;Ponnet et al, 2013). Anak-anak dari ibu yang mengalami tingkat stres dalam pengasuhan yang tinggi seringkali menunjukkan masalah sosial, emosional, dan perilaku yang signifikan, termasuk kecemasan, depresi, penarikan diri sosial, kesulitan perhatian, agresi, dan pelanggaran aturan selama masa prasekolah dan sekolah (BeLue et al, 2015;Cucinella et al, 2022;Santelices et al, 2021). Oleh karena itu, mengelola stres ibu sangat penting.…”