The Relationship Between Maternal Negative Perfectionism And Preschool Children’s Problem Behavior

The preschool period is a critical period for the development of children’s behavior,and the problem behavior of preschool children can largely predict the performance of adolescence and adulthood.According to ecosystem theory and problem behavior theory,the maternal negative perfectionism,psychological control and the children’s negative perfectionism were the key factors that affected the problem behavior of preschoolers.Previous studies had mostly investigated the mechanism of children’s problem behavior from single factor,and lacked the integrated perspective of family and individual factors;moreover,most previous studies focused on adolescents and elementary school children,and lacked investigations on preschool children.In view of this,this study would integrate factors from both mother’s and children’s,and explored the mechanism of maternal negative perfectionism influencing preschool children’s problem behavior,the chained multiple mediating effects of maternal psychological control and the children’s negative perfectionism.This study selected 370 children and their mother in Guangzhou to conduct a questionnaire survey,using the Negative Perfectionism Scale,the Maternal Psychological Control Level Questionnaire,the Children’s Negative Perfectionism Scale.Analyzed the negative perfectionism and problem behavior level of children aged 3 to 6 and the negative perfectionism and psychological control level of their mother from the perspective of demographic variables,explored the correlation between the four variables,and examined the mechanism of the maternal negative perfectionism on children’s problem behavior.The main findings were as follows:1.In general,maternal negative perfectionism,psychological control,and children’s problem behavior were at a low level,and the children’s negative perfectionism was at a low to medium level.2.There was a significant difference in the age of maternal psychological control.The degree of maternal psychological control of children aged 4～5 years was significantly higher than that of children aged 3～4 and 5～6 years old.There were significant differences in children’s negative perfectionism in children’s age and mother’s education.Children aged 3～4 years had significantly lower levels of negative perfectionism than older children.The level of negative perfectionism in children whose mother with undergraduate degree and above was significantly higher than that whose mother with junior college degree.There were significant differences in children’s problem behavior in children’s age,main caregiver,and mother’s education.Children aged 3～4 years of attention lacked problem behavior significantly more than older children,and children whose main caregiver was their grandparents had significantly higher emotional problem behavior and conduct behavior than children whose main caregiver was mother.Children whose mothers had a high school education and below had significantly more emotional problem behavior than children whose mother had a high school education or above.3.The negative perfectionism of mother and children was significantly positively correlated with children’s emotional problem,conduct problem,and peer relationship problem behavior,but not significantly related to lack of attention problem behavior;maternal psychological control and children’s four types of problem behaviors were all significantly positively correlated;there was a significant positive correlation between maternal negative perfectionism and their maternal psychological control,and both were significantly positively correlated with children’s negative perfectionism.4.Maternal psychological control played a completely mediating role in the influence of maternal negative perfectionism on preschool children’s problem behavior.That was to say,maternal negative perfectionism completely affected preschool children’s problem behavior through maternal psychological control.5.Children’s negative perfectionism played a completely mediating role in the influence of maternal negative perfectionism on preschool children’s problem behavior.That was to say,maternal negative perfectionism completely affected preschool children’s problem behavior through children’s negative perfectionism.6.In the influence of maternal negative perfectionism on preschool children’s problem behavior,maternal psychological control and children’s negative perfectionism also played a chain mediating role.In other words,the maternal negative perfectionism completely influenced the problem behavior of preschool children through the continuous mediating effect of the maternal psychological control and the children’s negative perfectionism.This study combines family factor with individual factor,which helps to enrich the exploration of the formation mechanism of problem behaviors from multiple perspectives.It also reveals for the first time the role of maternal psychological control and children’s negative perfectionism in maternal negative perfectionism and preschool children’s problem behavior.The intermediary function of the chain arouses the attention of society,family and school to the problem behavior of preschool children,helps parents to reflect on their parenting behaviors,and creates a good nurturing environment and atmosphere for the healthy growth of children.