Parent-Grandparent Co-Parenting and preschoolers’ Self-Control in China : The Roles of Maternal and Grandparental Parenting Styles

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to examine the association between parent-grandparent co-parenting and children’s self-control as well as the potential moderated mediation mechanisms. Participants were 367 children aged from 3 to 6 years from two public kindergartens in Shanghai and Guangzhou, China. Their mothers were asked to complete multiple questionnaires including the parent-grandparent co-parenting scale, parenting style scale, and children’s self-control, as well as their grandparents were asked to rate parenting practices. Research Findings: The results showed that: (1) parent-grandparent co-parenting was positively correlated with maternal authoritative parenting, grandparental authoritative parenting, and children’s self-control, whereas negatively correlated with maternal authoritarian parenting and grandparental authoritarian parenting. (2) maternal authoritarian parenting mediated the relation between parent-grandparent co-parenting and children’s self-control; (3) grandparental authoritarian parenting moderated the relations between parent-grandparent co-parenting, maternal authoritative parenting, and children’s self-control. To be specific, for children whose grandparents adopted less authoritarian parenting, their self-control level was higher, and the parent-grandparent co-parenting could predict their self-control via maternal authoritative parenting. Practice or Policy: These findings provide valuable information on the importance of maternal and grandparental parenting styles between parent-grandparent co-parenting and preschoolers’ self-control in Chinese culture.

Acknowledgments

The execution of this paper was a combined effort on behalf of all authors. DL and XQL conceptualized and designed the study. The data collection was conducted by XQL. PY and XDL performed the statistical analyses and drafted the initial manuscript before XX and ZC contributed to the writing of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from STI 2030-Major Projects, (No. 2022ZD0209000).