Poster #158 - Children’s School Adjustment: Longitudinal Effects of Harsh Parenting mediated by Negative Emotionality and Self-Esteem

• In Event: 1-005 - Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Children’ school adjustment is closely associated with various developmental outcomes and social success. Studies have suggested several risk factors and mechanisms associated with school adjustment, including parents’ harsh parenting and children’s low self-esteem as well as negative emotionality. Particularly, research has shown that children with those risk factors are particularly vulnerable for school adjustment from elementary school to middle school. The transition into middle school has been characterized as one of many “normative life crises” that involves both an increased opportunity for psychological growth and a heightened vulnerability to psychological disturbance. Despite such significance, few studies have examined longitudinal effects of risk factors in Korean children using longitudinal data. The present study examined mediating effects of negative emotionality and the lower level of self-esteem on the association between harsh parenting in early childhood and school adjustment in 1st grade of middle school.
Method: The present study used the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey, a national survey conducted between 2010 and 2016 in Korea, which annually assessed across 7 years. The present sample included 2,264 children (girls = 1,098) (ages 7 to 12, waves 2 to 7). The children reported on their parents’ harsh parenting at age 7 and 8 (w2, w3), negative emotionality (i.e., attention, aggression, somatization, social withdrawal, depression) at age 9 (w4), self-esteem at age 10 (w5), and children's school adjustment (i.e., learning activities, school rules, peer relationships, and teacher relations) at age 12(w7). School adjustment at age 7 (w2) was included as a control variable. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling in Mplus.
Result: The results showed that early harsh parenting on school adjustment in transition to middle school was mediated through negative emotionality and the lower level of self-esteem. Children with harsh parenting in early childhood predicted higher levels of negative emotionality and lower level of self-esteem in middle childhood, which then led to levels of school adjustment in 1st grade of middle school. Higher levels of harsh parenting were only indirectly associated with lower levels of school adjustment (β=-019, p < .000). Further, lower level of self-esteem at age 10 had mediating effects on the association between lower levels of negative emotionality at age 9 and lower levels of school adjustment at age 12 through (CFI=.955, TLI=.937, RMSEA=.05).
Conclusion: Findings indicated that harsh parenting in early childhood predicted learning activities, school rules, peer relationships, and teacher relations 5-6 years later in middle school through negative emotionality and self-esteem in childhood, suggesting children with harsh parenting as well as negative emotionality and lower levels of self-esteem may be at risk for successful transition into middle school. Findings also highlight long-lasting implications of parents’ harsh behavior and significant mediating effects of children’s negative emotionality and self-esteem for their subsequent adjustment across children through early adolescence. This suggests that early prevention to benefit parents would be important. Further, preventive intervention programs that are specifically aimed at reducing negative emotionality and promoting self-esteem before children transition to middle school would effectively improve subsequent school adjustment.

Author

• Yunhee Kim, Yonsei University
  Presenting Author