Effects Of Maternal Parenting Styles And Father Involvement On The Relationship Between Maternal Childhood Maltreatment And Emotional And Behavioral Problems Among Preschool Children

ObjectiveThe study aimed to analyze the association between maternal childhood maltreatment and preschool children’s emotional and behavioral problems,explore the mediating effect of maternal parenting style between maternal childhood maltreatment and preschool children’s emotional and behavioral problems,and examined the moderating role of father involvement in the mediation pathway.MethodsIn this study,6443 preschool children from 36 kindergartens in 3 cities of Anhui Province were selected for baseline data collection in June 2021（T₀）,and follow-up survey was conducted in December 2021（T₁）.6111 middle and primary class students who completed both baseline and follow-up survey were included in this study.Adverse Childhood Experiences International Questionnaires,Maternal Parenting Styles,the Inventory of Father Involvement Questionnaires,and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire were used to investigate.Chi-square test was used to analyze the general demographic characteristics of children of different groups.Spearman correlation was used to analyze the association among variables.After adjusting for confounding factors such as child gender,child age,only child,etc,the mediating effect of maternal parenting styles between maternal childhood maltreatment and preschool children’s emotional and behavioral problems（model 4）and the moderating effect of father involvement in the mediating effect（model 59）were analyzed by a bootstrap of PROCESS software.ResultsSpearman correlation analysis showed that different types of maternal childhood maltreatment,childhood maltreatment score,maternal negative parenting styles（indulgent,permissive,authoritarian,and inconsistent）were positively related to preschool children’s emotional and behavioral problems（P<0.01）;positive parenting style（democratic）,father involvement and preschool children’s emotional and behavioral problems were negatively correlated（P<0.01）.Different types of maternal childhood maltreatment,childhood maltreatment score were positively correlated with maternal positive parenting styles（P<0.01）.After adjusting for confounding factors,the Bootstrap test showed that parenting styles played a meditation role in the relationship between maternal childhood maltreatment and children’s emotional and behavioral problems,with a total meditation effect ratio of 45.44%.The meditating effects of indulgent,democratic,permissive,authoritarian,and inconsistent parenting styles were 8.12%,8.17%,9.95%,6.43%,and 12.73%,respectively.The moderated mediation analysis showed that father involvement in the mediating model of“maternal childhood maltreatment-negatively parenting styles（indulgent,permissive,authoritarian,and inconsistent）-preschool children’s emotional and behavioral problems”moderated the path of“maternal childhood maltreatment-negatively parenting styles”（P<0.05）,the moderating effects were0.030,0.024,0.025,0.035,respectively.In addition,in the mediation model of“maternal childhood emotional abuse-negatively parenting styles-preschool children’s emotional and behavioral problems”,father involvement moderated the path of“maternal childhood emotional abuse-negatively parenting styles”（P<0.05）,and the moderating effects were 0.044、0.029、0.030、0.036,respectively.In the mediation model of“maternal childhood physical abuse-negatively parenting styles-preschool children’s emotional and behavioral problems”,father involvement moderated the path of“maternal childhood physical abuse-negatively parenting styles”（P<0.05）,and the moderating effects were 0.032,0.025,0.037,0.035,respectively.ConclusionsMaternal parenting styles play a mediating role in the relationship between maternal childhood maltreatment and emotional and behavioral problems of preschool children.Father involvement play a moderating role in the first half of the mediation pathway.The moderated mediation model is established.There is an urgent need in the future to further explore the family environment factors that affect children’s emotional and behavioral problems,so as to provide reference for promoting children’s physical and mental health.