Jegatheeswaran Calpanaa, Burns Samantha, Perlman Michal
Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1V6, Canada.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2025 Jun 6;15(6):786. doi: 10.3390/bs15060786.
Maternal childrearing practices play a prominent role in a child's developmental outcomes. Difficult child temperament, specifically, negative emotionality, impacts parenting practices. The present study contributes to the existing literature by investigating the mediating role of parenting practices on associations between children's temperament and academic and behavioural outcomes in a low-income and ethnically diverse sample. The present study consists of a sample of 163 families. The average age of the children was 32.40 months (SD = 2.61 months). The average age of the mothers was 34.35 years (SD = 5.32 years). Structural equation modelling examined the relationship between children's temperament, parenting practices, and child outcomes. A two-step procedure was conducted to test this model: confirmatory factor analysis followed by latent path analysis. The results show that children's temperament was significantly and positively associated with mothers' hostile parenting and children's conduct problems. Hostile parenting was positively associated with children's conduct problems. While overprotective parenting was negatively associated with children's receptive vocabulary scores, maternal responsivity was positively associated with better receptive vocabulary in children. Finally, hostile parenting was found to play a significant and positive mediating role in children's conduct behaviour. Maternal practices are associated with outcomes in children with negative emotionality, underscoring the need for tailored interventions in diverse, low-income families.
母亲的育儿方式在孩子的发展结果中起着重要作用。难养型儿童气质,特别是消极情绪性,会影响育儿方式。本研究通过调查在低收入且种族多样的样本中,育儿方式在儿童气质与学业和行为结果之间的关联中所起的中介作用,为现有文献做出了贡献。本研究包含163个家庭的样本。儿童的平均年龄为32.40个月(标准差 = 2.61个月)。母亲的平均年龄为34.35岁(标准差 = 5.32岁)。结构方程模型检验了儿童气质、育儿方式和儿童结果之间的关系。采用两步法来检验该模型:先进行验证性因素分析,然后进行潜在路径分析。结果表明,儿童气质与母亲的敌意型育儿方式以及儿童的行为问题显著正相关。敌意型育儿方式与儿童的行为问题正相关。过度保护型育儿方式与儿童的接受性词汇得分负相关,而母亲的反应性与儿童更好的接受性词汇正相关。最后,发现敌意型育儿方式在儿童的行为表现中起着显著的正向中介作用。母亲的育儿方式与消极情绪性儿童的结果相关,这突出了在多样化的低收入家庭中进行针对性干预的必要性。