Maternal Warmth and Prosocial Behaviors Among Chinese Preschool Children: The Roles of Social Competence Sibling Presence

ABSTRACT

Research Findings: Despite the fact that the universal two-child policy had a significant impact on family structure and parenting behaviors, there is still a paucity of study on the mechanisms underlying this policy’s effects. This study explored the role of social competence and sibling presence in the relationship between maternal warmth and prosocial behaviors. Participants were 203 children aged 5–6 years (M_age = 48.47 months, SD = 3.74;104 boys) and their mothers in China. Maternal warmth was assessed through the observation of mother – child interaction. Child social competence and prosocial behaviors were assessed by teacher. The results showed that:(1) only children had more prosocial behaviors than children with siblings; (2) maternal warmth (T1) was positively correlated with child prosocial behaviors at Time1 and Time2; (3) Social competence (T2) mediated the longitudinal association between maternal warmth (T1) and child prosocial behaviors (T2); (4) The sibling presence moderated the relationship between maternal warmth (T1) and child prosocial behaviors (T2). Specifically, maternal warmth was only associated with subsequent prosocial behaviors for children in one-child families. Practice or Policy: These results revealed the influence of family structure and maternal warmth on child prosocial behaviors especially for children with siblings.

Acknowledgments

The execution of this paper was a combined effort on behalf of all authors. Conceptualization, J. S. and Y.L.; Data curation, J.S and Y.L.; Formal analysis, J.S.; Funding acquisition, Y.L.; Methodology, J.S.; Writing-original draft, J.S. and Y.L.; Writing-reviewing & editing, J.S., M.L., J.L, Y.L, and Y.F. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics Statement

All procedures performed in the study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Research Ethics Committee of Shanghai Normal University. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants and their parents/legal guardians in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by Social Science Foundation of Ministry of Education of China [20YJA880042], China National Society of Early Childhood Education [K20210054] and National Natural Science Foundation of China [31971001].