Wang SM, Yan SQ, Xie FF, Cai ZL, Gao GP, Weng TT, Tao FB. Association of preschool children behavior and emotional problems with the parenting behavior of both parents. World J Clin Cases 2024; 12(6): 1084-1093 [PMID: 38464916 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i6.1084]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Shuang-Qin Yan, MM, Chief Doctor, Department of Child Health, Ma’anshan Maternal and Child Health Center, No. 446 Jiashan Road, Ma’anshan 243011, Anhui Province, China. shuangqinyan@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Pediatrics
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Su-Mei Wang, Shuang-Qin Yan, Fang-Fang Xie, Zhi-Ling Cai, Guo-Peng Gao, Ting-Ting Weng, Department of Child Health, Ma’anshan Maternal and Child Health Center, Ma’anshan 243011, Anhui Province, China
Fang-Biao Tao, Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, Anhui Province, China
Author contributions: Wang SM, Yan SQ, Gao GP and Tao FB contributed to the conceptualization; Weng TT contributed to the data curation, formal analysis, and investigation; Yan SQ, Cai ZL and Tao FB contributed to the funding acquisition; Wang SM contributed to the methodology and writing-original draft; Yan SQ contributed to the project administration and supervision; Yan SQ, Xie FF, Cai ZL and Tao FB contributed to the resources; Tao FB contributed to the software; Wang SM and Yan SQ contributed to the validation; Cai ZL contributed to the visualization; Wang SM, Yan SQ and Gao GP contributed to the writing-review & editing.
Supported bythe National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81330068.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by Institutional Review Board of Ma’anshan Maternal and Child Health Center.
Informed consent statement: All the study subjects provided informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Shuang-Qin Yan, MM, Chief Doctor, Department of Child Health, Ma’anshan Maternal and Child Health Center, No. 446 Jiashan Road, Ma’anshan 243011, Anhui Province, China. shuangqinyan@163.com
Received: September 22, 2023 Peer-review started: September 22, 2023 First decision: December 22, 2023 Revised: December 29, 2023 Accepted: January 25, 2024 Article in press: January 25, 2024 Published online: February 26, 2024 Processing time: 151 Days and 5.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Parental behaviors are key in shaping children’s psychological and behavioral development, crucial for early identification and prevention of mental health issues, reducing psychological trauma in childhood.
AIM
To investigate the relationship between parenting behaviors and behavioral and emotional issues in preschool children.
METHODS
From October 2017 to May 2018, 7 kindergartens in Ma’anshan City were selected to conduct a parent self-filled questionnaire - Health Development Survey of Preschool Children. Children’s Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (Parent Version) was applied to measures the children’s behavioral and emotional performance. Parenting behavior was evaluated using the Parental Behavior Inventory. Binomial logistic regression model was used to analyze the association between the detection rate of preschool children’s behavior and emotional problems and their parenting behaviors.
RESULTS
High level of parental support/participation was negatively correlated with conduct problems, abnormal hyperactivity, abnormal total difficulty scores and abnormal prosocial behavior problems. High level of maternal support/participation was negatively correlated with abnormal emotional symptoms and abnormal peer interaction in children. High level of parental hostility/coercion was positively correlated with abnormal emotional symptoms, abnormal conduct problems, abnormal hyperactivity, abnormal peer interaction, and abnormal total difficulty scores in children (all P < 0.05). Moreover, paternal parenting behaviors had similarly effects on behavior and emotional problems of preschool children compared with maternal parenting behaviors (all P > 0.05), after calculating ratio of odds ratio values.
CONCLUSION
Our study found that parenting behaviors are associated with behavioral and emotional issues in preschool children. Overall, the more supportive or involved the parents are, the fewer behavioral and emotional problems the children experience; conversely, the more hostile or controlling the parents are, the more behavioral and emotional problems the children face. Moreover, the impact of fathers’ parenting behaviors on preschool children’s behavior and emotions is no less significant than that of mothers’ parenting behaviors.
Core Tip: Seven kindergartens in Ma’anshan City were selected to conduct a questionnaire survey. The purpose of this study was to analyze the behavioral and emotional problems of preschool children in Ma’anshan City and to explore the relationship between parenting behavior and behavior and emotional problems of preschool children. The emotional and behavioral problems of preschool children in Ma’anshan City are high, and the parenting style is closely related to the emotional and behavioral problems of children. Targeted health education should be carried out to encourage the active participation of fathers to ensure the healthy physical and mental development of children.
