Factors Influencing Emotional-behavioral Problems Among Children With Short Stature From The Perspective Of Family Ecosystem

ObjectiveTo analyze the current status of emotional-behavioral problems among children with short stature and explore the influence of parental factor(affiliate stigma),family factor(family flexibility)and children factor(emotional intelligence)on the emotional-behavioral problems based on the family ecosystem model of children’s mental health development.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study,a total of 220 children with short stature and their parents who volunteered to participate in this study were conveniently selected from the pediatric endocrinology clinic of a third-class hospital in Jinan,Shandong Province,from March 2022 to September 2022.The research instruments included the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire(SDQ),the Affiliate Stigma Scale(ASS),the Chinese Version of Family Resilience Assessment Scale(FRAS-C),The Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory Youth Version(Bar-On EQ-i:YV),and the socio-demographic data questionnaire,which were used to measure children’emotional-behavioral problems,parents’ affiliate stigma,family resilience,children’ emotional intelligence and the general information on children with short stature and their parents.All the data were analyzed with descriptive statistical analysis,univariate analysis and Pearson correlation analysis by using SPSS 26.0,and the Amos24.0 plug-in were used to present the predictive model and to validate the model.Results1.There were 220 children with short stature met the criteria,whose mean age was(11.45±2.22)years,mean score of difficult problem was(10.85±4.84)with a detection rate of 14.55%,and mean score of prosocial behavior was(7.24±2.03)with a detection rate of 8.18%.2.The univariate analysis results showed that there were significant differences in difficult problems in children’s sex,children’s age,children’s body mass index,residence,father’s age,father’s childbearing age,father’s occupation,mother’s educational level,mother’s occupation,family history of short stature,parental relationship and parenting attitude(all P<0.05).There were significant differences in prosocial behavior in children’s sex,children’s age,father’s childbearing age,father’s education level,mother’s age,mother’s childbearing age,mother’s education level,family type and parental rearing attitude(all P<0.05).3.Pearson correlation analysis showed that the total affiliate stigma and its dimension scores were positively correlated with total difficult problems(r=0.290-0.312,all P<0.01),respectively,while total family resilience,emotional intelligence and their dimension scores were negatively correlated with total difficult problems(r=-0.214--0.362,all P<0.01),respectively.The total affiliate stigma and its dimension scores were negatively correlated with total prosocial behavior(r=-0.253--0.297,all P<0.01),respectively,while children’s family resilience,emotional intelligence and their dimension scores were positively correlated with total prosocial behavior(r=0.267-0.401,all P<0.01),respectively.4.The structural equation model analysis results showed that children’s emotional intelligence and family resilience significantly negatively affected the difficulty problems of children with short stature(β-0.350,P=0.002;β=-0.340,P=0.001),respectively.Children’s emotional intelligence and family resilience had positive effects on prosocial behavior of children with short stature(β=0.190,P=0.003),while parental affiliate stigma had negative effects on prosocial behavior of children with short stature(β=-0.230,P<0.001;β=0.240,P<0.001).Conclusions1.Children with short stature have certain emotional and behavioral problems,especially peer relationship,hyperactivity/attention deficit problems,which need attention.2.The sociodemographic variables can influence the emotional-behavioral problems of children with short status.Specifically,children’s sex,children’s age,children’s body mass index,place of residence,father’s age,father’s childbearing age,father’s occupation,mother’s educational level,mother’s occupation,family history of short stature,parental relationship can influence the difficult problems of children with short status,while children’s sex,children’s age,father’s childbearing age,father’s educational level,mother’s age,mother’s childbearing age,mother’s educational level and family type can influence the prosocial behavior of children with short status.3.The higher level of parental affiliate stigma perceived,the less the prosocial behavior of children with short stature had,while the higher the level of family resilience,the higher the level of emotional intelligence,the less emotional-behavioral problems.