Impacts Of Parenting Styles On Emotional And Behavior Problems Of Preschool Children

Objective:To understand the general status of emotional and behavioral problems,sleep status and parenting styles among preschool children,explore the impact of parenting styles on children’s emotional and behavioral problems,as well as the mediating role of sleep status,and provide relevant evidence of early family interventions for children with psychological and behavioral problems.Methods:The cluster sampling method was used to sample 3167 preschool children from 12 kindergartens in Hubei Province.The guardians of children completed the questionnaires.The survey included general demographic characteristics,family characteristics,parenting styles,sleep status,and emotional and behavioral problems.SPSS 22.0 was used for descriptive analysis,univariate analysis and correlation analysis,and Amos 21.0 was used for path analysis.Results:1.A total of 3167 preschool children aged 3-6 years were included in the study,including 1,724 boys(54.4%)and 1,443 girls(45.6%).The average age was 4.4 ± 0.90 years.1136(35.9%)were 3-4 years old,1070(33.8%)were 4-5 years old,and 961(30.3%)were 5-6 years old.2.Father support/participation dimension,hostility/forced dimension scores were 34.98 ± 8.52 and 17.71 ± 6.26,respectively;Mother support/participation dimension,hostility/forced dimension scores were 38.85 ± 7.76 and 18.13 ± 6.59,respectively.The mother’s support/engagement dimension score is higher than the father’s,and the girl’s father support/engagement dimension score is higher than the boy’s,while the boy’s father’s hostility/forced dimension score is higher than the girl’s.3.The score of the The Children’s Sleep Health Questionnaire was 47.52 ± 5.85,and 79.0% of children had different sleep problems.Among the various types of sleep problems,sleep impedance is the most common,with an incidence of 64.7%,followed by sleep anxiety of 48.4%,sleep duration of 34.6%.The lowest incidence is sleep breathing disorder of 4.1%.4.The total score of Strength and Difficulty Questionnaire(SDQ)was 10.58 ± 4.35,with 303 abnormal scores,accounting for 9.8% of the total sample.Among all dimensions,the highest scoring abnormality was peer factor,with an abnormal rate of 23.1%,followed by hyperactivity factor(17.4%)and prosocial factor(13.2%).The scores of emotional factor and prosocial factor of girls were higher than those of boys,and the scores of hyperactivity factor,peer factor and SDQ were lower than those of boys.The scores of conduct factor and peer factor decreased with age,and the score of prosocial factor increased with age.5.Father and mother support/participation was negatively correlated with sleep status(β =-0.12,β =-0.09)and total SDQ score(β =-0.14,β =-0.14),and was positively correlated with prosocial factor score(β = 0.14,β = 0.22);Father and mother hostility/forced was positively correlated with sleep status(β = 0.07,β = 0.17)and total SDQ score(β = 0.17,β = 0.17),and was negatively correlated with prosocial factor scores(β =-0.05,β =-0.04);the path coefficients between the total CSHQ score and the total SDQ score,the prosocial factor score are 0.26 and-0.10,respectively.Conclusion:1.Parents of preschool children tend to support/participate in their children’s upbringing,and the score of support/participation of mothers is higher than that of fathers.Compared to girls,fathers scored lower on the support/engagement dimension and higher on the hostile/forced dimension.2.Sleep problems in preschool children are prominent.The rate of CSHQ score more than 41 was 79.0%.Sleep impedance was the most common type of sleep problem,followed by sleep anxiety and sleep duration,and the lowest incidence was sleep breathing disorder.3.The abnormal rate of SDQ scores is 9.8%,which is at the middle-low level of abnormal rates(6%-26%)in various regions of China.The abnormal rates of Peer factors,hyperactivity,prosocial factors,conduct factors,and emotional factors decreased gradually.The detection rate of emotional behavior abnormality of boys is higher than that of girls.With the increase of age,the emotional behavior problems of children are improved.4.Parental support/participation are negatively related to children’s sleep status and emotional and behavioral problems,and compulsory/hostile parenting styles are positively related to children’s sleep status and emotional and behavioral problems;children’s sleep status are positively related to children’s emotional and behavioral problems,and sleep status palys a mediating role between parenting styles and children’s emotional and behavioral problems.