ABSTRACT
The present study examined associations between parents’ child-based worth, psychological control, parent–child relationship, and young children’s behavioral problems in terms of internalizing and externalizing problems. A sample of Chinese parents (N = 285) of children aged 30–83 (M = 57.52, SD = 13.47) months completed questionnaires to report their own parenting and their children’s behaviors. Parents’ child-based worth was related to children’s internalizing rather than externalizing problems. Parental psychological control and parent–child relationship mediated the association between parents’ child-based worth and children’s internalizing problems in a serial multiple mediator model. The study provided preliminary evidence showing the mechanism by which parents’ child-based worth influence young children’s behavioral outcomes. The results have practical implications for parenting in the Chinese context and beyond.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the parents who participated in the study.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.