TY - JOUR
T1 - Chinese Preschool Children's Socioemotional Development
T2 - The Effects of Maternal and Paternal Psychological Control
AU - Xing, Shufen
AU - Gao, Xin
AU - Song, Xinxin
AU - Archer, Marc
AU - Zhao, Demao
AU - Zhang, Mengting
AU - Ding, Bilei
AU - Liu, Xia
N1 - Copyright © 2017 Xing, Gao, Song, Archer, Zhao, Zhang, Ding and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).
PY - 2017/10/18
Y1 - 2017/10/18
N2 - The present study examined the relative prediction and joint effects of maternal and paternal psychological control on children's socioemotional development. A total of 325 preschool children between the ages of 34 and 57 months (M = 4 years 2 months) and their parents participated in the study. Fathers and mothers, respectively, reported their levels of psychological control and mothers evaluated the socioemotional development of children using two indicators (i.e., behavioral problems and prosocial behaviors). The results indicated that the relative predictive effects of maternal and paternal psychological control on children's socioemotional development differed. Specifically, maternal psychological control was a significant predictor of children's behavioral problems and prosocial behaviors, whereas the levels of paternal psychological control were unrelated to children's socioemotional development. With regard to the combined effects of maternal and paternal psychological control, the results of ANOVAs and simple slope analysis both indicated that children would be at risk of behavioral problems as long as they had one highly psychologically controlling parent. High levels of paternal psychological control were associated with increased behavioral problems of children only when maternal psychological control was low. However, the association between maternal psychological control and children's behavioral behaviors was significant, despite paternal psychological control.
AB - The present study examined the relative prediction and joint effects of maternal and paternal psychological control on children's socioemotional development. A total of 325 preschool children between the ages of 34 and 57 months (M = 4 years 2 months) and their parents participated in the study. Fathers and mothers, respectively, reported their levels of psychological control and mothers evaluated the socioemotional development of children using two indicators (i.e., behavioral problems and prosocial behaviors). The results indicated that the relative predictive effects of maternal and paternal psychological control on children's socioemotional development differed. Specifically, maternal psychological control was a significant predictor of children's behavioral problems and prosocial behaviors, whereas the levels of paternal psychological control were unrelated to children's socioemotional development. With regard to the combined effects of maternal and paternal psychological control, the results of ANOVAs and simple slope analysis both indicated that children would be at risk of behavioral problems as long as they had one highly psychologically controlling parent. High levels of paternal psychological control were associated with increased behavioral problems of children only when maternal psychological control was low. However, the association between maternal psychological control and children's behavioral behaviors was significant, despite paternal psychological control.
KW - Behavioral problems
KW - Preschool children
KW - Prosocial behaviors
KW - Psychological control
KW - Socioemotional development
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85049164964
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85049164964#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01818
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01818
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85049164964
SN - 1664-1078
VL - 8
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
IS - OCT
M1 - 1818
ER -