Vaughn-Coaxum Rachel A, Mills Benjamin L, Feldman Julia S, Johnston Katherine E, Lindhiem Oliver
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 3811 O'Hara St., Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA.
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Western Psychiatric Hospital, 3811 O'Hara St., Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA.
Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2025 Jul 9. doi: 10.1007/s10578-025-01875-7.
The effects of parenting behaviors on children's internalizing symptoms are influenced by numerous factors. Across prior studies, there is evidence that parental internalizing symptoms (anxiety and depression) are associated with less consistent and structured parenting behaviors as well as higher child internalizing symptoms. Factors such as familial socioeconomic status and cultural identity have also been shown to interact with parental internalizing symptoms and parenting behaviors. Prior studies of these associations often do not include fathers and are not typically population representative. The goal of the present study was to leverage a nationally representative sample of U.S. parents to examine how parents' self-reported internalizing symptoms relate to their parenting behaviors and reports of their child's symptoms, accounting for familial factors (socioeconomic status, child age, sex, race, and ethnicity) known to influence parenting. Parents of 5-12-year-old children (N = 1570, 36% fathers) completed self-report measures of their parenting (inconsistent discipline and poor supervision and monitoring), their depression and anxiety symptoms, and their children's internalizing symptoms. Results from structural equation modeling demonstrated that maternal and paternal internalizing symptoms were associated with less consistent parenting behaviors and with greater child internalizing symptoms. Paternal internalizing symptoms were also indirectly associated with child symptoms via less consistent parenting. Associations among family sociodemographic factors and parenting behaviors varied across parents. Results are consistent with findings from previous studies in smaller samples, focused primarily on mothers. Findings support the generalizability of associations among parental internalizing symptoms, parenting behaviors, and child internalizing symptoms to fathers and to nonclinical samples of parents.
养育行为对儿童内化症状的影响受到多种因素的制约。在以往的研究中，有证据表明父母的内化症状（焦虑和抑郁）与不太一致和结构化的养育行为以及较高的儿童内化症状相关。家庭社会经济地位和文化认同等因素也被证明与父母的内化症状和养育行为相互作用。以往关于这些关联的研究通常不包括父亲，而且通常也不具有人群代表性。本研究的目的是利用美国父母具有全国代表性的样本，来考察父母自我报告的内化症状如何与他们的养育行为以及他们孩子症状的报告相关，同时考虑已知会影响养育方式的家庭因素（社会经济地位、孩子年龄、性别、种族和民族）。5至12岁儿童的父母（N = 1570，36%为父亲）完成了关于他们养育方式（不一致的管教以及监督和监控不力）、抑郁和焦虑症状以及孩子内化症状的自我报告测量。结构方程模型的结果表明，母亲和父亲的内化症状与不太一致的养育行为以及更大的孩子内化症状相关。父亲的内化症状还通过不太一致的养育方式与孩子症状间接相关。家庭社会人口学因素与养育行为之间的关联在不同父母之间存在差异。研究结果与之前在较小样本中主要针对母亲的研究结果一致。研究结果支持了父母内化症状、养育行为和孩子内化症状之间的关联在父亲以及非临床父母样本中的普遍性。
