Zhang Fa, Chen Chin-Chih, Xia Yuyan, Xu Yaoying, Cage Jamie
School of Education, Open University of China, Beijing, China.
School of Education, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, United States.
Front Psychol. 2025 Jul 22;16:1525077. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1525077. eCollection 2025.
Early self-regulation is a crucial predictor of how well preschoolers respond to challenging, frustrating, and distracting situations. Examining the mediating role of contextual and individual factors provides insight into how external influences and personal characteristics shape children's ability to navigate these challenges. This study aims to investigate whether specific contextual (e.g., parental stress) and individual (e.g., emotional skills) factors mediate the relationship between preschoolers' self-regulation and their behavioral responses to transitions, frustration, and distraction.
We utilized data from the 2021 National Survey of Children's Health, which includes a nationally representative sample of children aged 3-5 in the U.S. ( = 11,554). Structural equation modeling was employed to examine the mediating effects of parental stress (contextual factor) and emotional skills (individual factor) on the association between preschoolers' self-regulation and their behavioral responsiveness.
The analysis revealed that higher levels of self-regulation were associated with more positive emotional skills, lower parental stress, and improved behavioral responsiveness in children. Among the mediators, parental stress significantly mediated the relationship between preschoolers' self-regulation and behavioral responsiveness, while emotional skills did not show a significant mediating effect.
These findings suggest that contextual factors, particularly parental stress, play a more substantial mediating role than individual emotional skills in shaping the relationship between self-regulation and behavioral responses in preschoolers. This highlights the importance of addressing parenting-related stress in intervention programs aimed at supporting children's behavioral development.
早期自我调节是预测学龄前儿童应对具有挑战性、令人沮丧和分散注意力情况的能力的关键指标。研究情境因素和个体因素的中介作用，有助于深入了解外部影响和个人特征如何塑造儿童应对这些挑战的能力。本研究旨在调查特定的情境因素（如父母压力）和个体因素（如情绪技能）是否介导学龄前儿童的自我调节与其对过渡、挫折和分心的行为反应之间的关系。
我们使用了2021年全国儿童健康调查的数据，该调查包括美国3至5岁儿童的全国代表性样本（ = 11,554）。采用结构方程模型来检验父母压力（情境因素）和情绪技能（个体因素）对学龄前儿童自我调节与其行为反应性之间关联的中介作用。
分析表明，较高水平的自我调节与儿童更积极的情绪技能、较低的父母压力以及更好的行为反应性相关。在中介因素中，父母压力显著介导了学龄前儿童自我调节与行为反应性之间的关系，而情绪技能未显示出显著的中介作用。
这些发现表明，在塑造学龄前儿童自我调节与行为反应之间的关系方面，情境因素，尤其是父母压力，比个体情绪技能起着更重要的中介作用。这凸显了在旨在支持儿童行为发展的干预项目中解决与养育相关压力的重要性。
