Poster #72 - Maternal Overcontrol and Young Children’s Internalizing Problems in China:Moderated Mediating Effect

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

Parental overcontrol as an important dimension of parenting behavior has been found to be associated with children’s internalizing problems ( Miller et al., 2018). However, much of the evidence comes from studies conducted in Western countries.Moreover, little is known about the underlying mechanisms that might help account for the links between parental overcontrol and children’s internalizing problems.
According to socioecological theory, the effects of parental overcontrol on children’s development depend, to a large extent, on the nature of parental overcontrol as well as the cultural context where it occurs (e.g., Chao, 2001; Chao & Tseng, 2002; Gershoff et al., 2010).
The goal of the current study was to examine a complex theoretical model linking maternal overcontrol, children’s social competence, teacher-child conflict and children’s internalizing problems in the context of China.
Using a longitudinal study for a year,maternal overcontrol was assessed through observation during mother–child interaction tasks. Teachers rated children’s social competence, internalizing problems, and their relationship with each child.We firstly examined the potential mediating effect of social competence in the relation between maternal overcontrol and children’s internalizing problems while controlling for T1 internalizing problems. Secondly,we examined the potential moderated role of teacher-child conflict in the previously established mediating model linking maternal overcontrol, children’s social competence and internalizing problems. The Marco PROCESS (Hayes，2013) was used to analyze the mediating effect and the moderated mediating effect.
The results of our study show that (a) maternal overcontrol indirectly predicted child’s internalizing problems through its negative association with child’s social competence and (b) the indirect effect was moderated by teacher–child conflict, such that the higher level of teacher-child conflict exacerbated the negative effect of maternal overcontrol on children’s social competence.
The findings from this research contribute to our understanding of the underlying mechanisms that might help account for the links between parental overcontrol and children’s internalizing problems in urban areas of mainland China. The results of this study reflect rapid changes in parenting behaviors and attitudes in China, as it illustrates that overcontrol as a negative parenting behavior is associated with higher levels of social emotional problems in contemporary Chinese society.
These results are important in identifying children who are most vulnerable to develop internalizing problems in the context of overcontrolling parents and high conflict teacher–child relationships.These findings indicate that supporting children in their social contacts and reducing the negative teacher-child relationships in school might be beneficial in relieving the effects of maternal overcontrol.

Group Authors

Yan Li

Author

• Juanjuan Sun, Shanghai Normal University
  Presenting Author