Children's learning behaviors matter for mothers' life satisfaction: A 30-day daily diary study during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Parents' life satisfaction plays a crucial role in promoting family functioning. This study investigated how children's daily learning behaviors are associated with mothers' life satisfaction, considering parenting styles, such as authoritative and authoritarian parenting. In total, 399 Chinese mothers of young school-aged children (M = 7.9 years old, SD = 0.9 years) participated in a 30-day daily diary study during the COVID-19 lockdown. Multilevel modeling indicated that, at both the between- and within-person levels, mothers reported higher life satisfaction when their children exhibited more positive learning behaviors (i.e. spent more time on schoolwork, participated in more extracurricular activities, displayed more learning concentration, and showed more learning autonomy). Cross-level interactions revealed that within-person changes in children's extracurricular participation were associated with life satisfaction among mothers with lower levels of authoritative parenting. Moreover, associations between children's time spent on schoolwork and mothers' life satisfaction were significant among mothers with lower levels of authoritarian parenting. However, associations between children's learning autonomy and mothers' life satisfaction were stronger among mothers with higher levels of authoritarian parenting. This study contributes to the existing body of literature and provides novel evidence, emphasizing the importance of assessing child and parent characteristics to better support mothers' well-being.