Mediating Effect Of Self-esteem On The Relationship Between Parenting Styles And Emotional And Behavioral Problems In Grade 3～5

Objective To investigate the prevalence of emotional and behavioral problems among school-aged children,explore the relationship between parenting styles and emotional and behavioral problems,and further to analyze the mediating effects of self-esteem on relationship between parenting styles and emotional and behavioral problems,so that to provide theoretical basis for the prevention and intervention of emotional and behavioral problems among school-aged children.Methods Participants of this study came from the third to fifth grades in two primary schools in a city in Shandong Zibo by cluster sampling.Following the voluntary principle,written informed consents were obtained from all participants guardians.Ultimately,2001 school aged children were included in this study,and the effective response rate was 95.3%.The Short-Egna Minnen av Barndoms Uppfostran(s-EMBU),Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale(RSES),Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire(SDQ)were used to measure parenting style,self-esteem and emotional and behavioral problems of school-aged children,respectively.Epi Data 3.1 and SPSS 23.0 were used to establish a data-base and analyze data.Descriptive analyses were used to show the demographic information of the school-aged children.The level of parenting style scores of school-aged children were compared between different socio-demographic characteristics by using independent-samples t-test and variance analysis.Chi-square test was used to compare the prevalence of emotional and behavioral problems among school-aged children in different socio-demographic characteristics.Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between parenting styles,self-esteem and emotional and behavioral problems.Binary Logistic regressions models were applied to analyze the effects of parenting styles and self-esteem on emotional and behavioral problems.Bootstrap method and PROCESS software were used to test the mediating effect of self-esteem.Results The average age of 2001 school-aged children in this survey was 10.30 ± 0.89,of which 1010 were boys(50.5%)and 991 were girls(49.5%).Among them,184 participants(9.2%)reported emotional symptoms,174 participants(8.7%)reported conduct problems,57 participants(2.8%)reported hyperactivity problems,236 participants(11.8%)reported peer problems,111 participants(5.5%)reported prosocial behavior,234 participants(11.7%)reported total difficulties.High father’s refusal was the risk factor of emotional symptoms(OR=4.287,95%CI: 3.094～5.939),conduct problems(OR=3.673,95%CI: 2.627～5.136),hyperactivity problems(OR=2.515,95%CI: 1.434～4.413),peer problems(OR=1.522,95%CI: 1.112～2.082),and total difficulties(OR=4.562,95%CI: 3.380～6.156).High father’s emotional warmth was the protective factor of emotional symptoms(OR=0.624,95%CI: 0.395～0.987),hyperactivity problems(OR=0.340,95%CI: 0.120～0.965),prosocial behavior(OR=0.310,95%CI: 0.141～0.684),and total difficulties(OR=0.555,95%CI: 0.357～0.862).High father’s overprotective was found to be positively associated with emotional symptoms(OR=2.117,95%CI: 1.522～2.945),conduct problems(OR=2.203,95%CI: 1.566～3.099),peer problems(OR=1.616,95%CI: 1.190～2.194)and total difficulties(OR=2.137,95%CI: 1.572～2.906).High mother’s refusal increased the risk of emotional symptoms(OR=4.000,95%CI: 2.893～5.530),conduct problems(OR=3.051,95%CI: 2.192～4.246),hyperactivity problems(OR=2.118,95%CI: 1.219～3.680),peer problems(OR=1.604,95%CI: 1.197～2.149),and total difficulties(OR=4.220,95%CI: 3.132～5.687).High mother’s emotional warmth reduced the risk of emotional symptoms(OR=0.531,95%CI: 0.337～0.837),prosocial behavior(OR=0.421,95%CI: 0.220～0.807),and total difficulties(OR=0.654,95%CI: 0.439～0.974).High mother’s overprotective was the risk factor of emotional symptoms(OR=2.247,95%CI: 1.608～3.140),conduct problems(OR=2.138,95%CI: 1.509～3.028),peer problems(OR=1.519,95%CI: 1.106～2.085),and total difficulties(OR=2.235,95%CI: 1.635～3.055).Compared to low self-esteem,high self-esteem had greater odds of emotional symptoms(OR=0.121,95%CI: 0.056～0.261),conduct problems(OR=0.282,95%CI: 0.160～0.498),hyperactivity problems(OR=0.219,95%CI: 0.067～0.723),peer problems(OR=0.365,95%CI: 0.236～0.562),prosocial behavior(OR=0.205,95%CI: 0.088～0.477),and total difficulties(OR=0.203,95%CI: 0.113～0.364).Self-esteem had a significant mediating effect on the relationship between parenting styles and total difficulties.After controlling for confounding factors,self-esteem had a significant mediating effect(a×b)on the relationship between father’s refusal and total difficulties,95%CI did not contain 0(0.1610～0.2366),and the ratio of mediation effects to total effect was 28.3%.Self-esteem had a significant mediating effect(a×b)on the relationship between father’s emotional warmth and total difficulties,95%CI did not contain 0(-0.2026～-0.1460),and the ratio of mediation effects to total effect was 48.8%.Self-esteem had a significant mediating effect(a×b)on the relationship between father’s overprotective and total difficulties,95%CI did not contain 0(0.0474～0.1083),and the ratio of mediation effects to total effect was 22.9%.Self-esteem had a significant mediating effect(a×b)on the relationship between mother’s refusal and total difficulties,95%CI did not contain 0(0.1759～0.2571),and the ratio of mediation effects to total effect was 29.7%.Self-esteem had a significant mediating effect(a×b)on the relationship between mother’s emotional warmth and total difficulties,95%CI did not contain 0(-0.2184～-0.1590),and the ratio of mediation effects to total effect was 53.1%.Self-esteem had a significant mediating effect(a×b)on the relationship between mother’s overprotective and total difficulties,95%CI did not contain 0(0.0484～0.1062),and the ratio of mediation effects to total effect was 22.2%.Conclusion This study found that positive parenting styles can alleviate the occurrence of emotional and behavioral problems and negative parenting styles can lead to the occurrence of emotional and behavioral problems among school-aged children.High level of self-esteem can reduce the risk of emotional and behavioral problems.Further analysis found that self-esteem play a mediating role in relationship between parenting styles and emotional and behavioral problems among school-aged children.Improving parents’ awareness of adopting scientific parenting styles,playing a warm,understanding,and authoritative image of parents,and paying attention to the development of children’s self-esteem can help prevent and control the emotional and behavioral problems of school-aged children.