Longitudinal Effects Of Maternal Authoritative Parenting On Preschoolers’ Prosocial Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model

Prosocial behavior refers to the behavior that individuals voluntarily perform in social interaction to benefit others or the society,which is an important part of children’s social development.A large number of studies have shown that maternal authoritative parenting positively predicted children’s prosocial behavior,but most of these studies used a cross-sectional design and were unable to essentially reveal the relationship between maternal authoritative parenting styles and children’s prosocial behaviors over time.In addition,as an external influencing factor of individual development,maternal authoritative parenting does not directly affect the individual’s external behavior,but needs to be mediated by individual internal factors.As an important internal factor of the individual,theory of mind is not only positively influenced by the maternal authoritative parenting,but also can predict the development of preschoolers’ prosocial behavior,thus may mediate the relationship between them.Finally,due to the more authoritative characteristics of maternal parenting for girls and the differences in traits between boys and girls,the authoritative parenting style of mothers may have different effects on the cognitive and behavioral development of boys and girls.Therefore,this thesis aimed to investigate the longitudinal effects of maternal authoritative parenting style on preschoolers’ prosocial behavior,and to explore the mediating role of theory of mind and the moderating role of gender.In this thesis,382 preschoolers(194 boys and 188 girls)and their mothers were followed up at two time points(one year apart).At each time point,children were asked to complete two unexpected location tasks and two unexpected content tasks to assess their theory of mind,and to complete the helping and sharing tasks to assess their prosocial behavior.In addition,mothers were asked to fill out the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire(PSDQ)to assess their authoritative parenting behavior at two time points.The results showed that:1.Maternal authoritative parenting positively predicted preschoolers’ prosocial behavior one year later;2.Maternal authoritative parenting indirectly affected preschoolers’ prosocial behavior partly through their theory of mind one year later;3.Gender moderated the first half of the longitudinal mediating model.Specifically,maternal authoritative parenting predicted girls’ theory of mind one year later,but not boys’.Through a longitudinal study design at two time points(one year apart),this thesis found that maternal authoritative parenting positively predicted preschoolers’ prosocial behavior one year later,the theory of mind of preschooler one year later played a mediating role in their relationship,maternal authoritative parenting affected prosocial behavior in girls partly through their theory of mind one year later,but not in boys.This results not only enriched the mechanisms of preschoolers’ prosocial behavior,but also provided theoretical guidance for mothers and kindergartens to raise and educate preschooler scientifically.