Peer-reviewed article
Investigating correlates of children's emotional well‐being: Parenting stress and child temperament
Şevval Çelebi, Ibrahim H. Acar ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This study looked at how child temperament and parenting stress relate to the emotional well-being of Turkish preschool children. Mothers of 219 children aged 36 to 76 months reported on emotion regulation, emotion dysregulation, aggression, anxiety, temperament and their own parenting stress. Children with more persistence had less emotion dysregulation and aggression, while children with more reactivity had poorer emotion regulation and more dysregulation, aggression and anxiety. Higher parenting stress was linked to poorer emotional well-being. Parenting stress also changed how persistence related to emotion regulation and aggression.
Key points
- Persistence was negatively associated with emotion dysregulation and child aggression.
- Reactivity was negatively associated with emotion regulation and positively associated with emotion dysregulation, aggression and anxiety.
- Parenting stress was negatively associated with emotion regulation and positively associated with emotion dysregulation, aggression and anxiety.
- High persistence with low parenting stress was associated with higher emotion regulation.
- Low persistence with high parenting stress was linked to higher child aggression.
Limitations
The abstract describes associations in a sample of mothers' reports, so it cannot show cause and effect or how these links change over time. Because all measures came from mothers and the sample was from Turkey, the findings may not apply to other reporters or settings.
Abstract
Abstract Children's emotional well‐being may emerge as a result of the dynamic interplay between individual factors, such as temperament and environmental factors, such as parenting stress. The current study aimed to investigate the contributions of child temperament and parenting stress to children's emotional well‐being. This study also examined the moderating role of parenting stress on the association between child temperament and children's emotional well‐being. Participants were mothers of 219 Turkish preschool children (110 girls) aged 36 months to 76 months ( M = 56.95 months, SD = 11.73 months). Mothers reported on children's emotional well‐being (emotion regulation, emotion dysregulation, child aggression and child anxiety), temperament (persistence and reactivity) and parenting stress. Persistence was negatively associated with emotion dysregulation and child aggression, while reactivity was negatively associated with emotion regulation and positively associated with emotion dysregulation, aggression and anxiety. Parenting stress was negatively associated with emotion regulation and positively associated with emotion dysregulation, aggression and anxiety. Simple slope analyses revealed that high persistence coupled with low parenting stress was associated with higher emotion regulation, while low persistence paired with high parenting stress was linked to higher child aggression. The findings underline the significance of child temperament and parenting stress for children's emotional well‐being. Highlights Temperamental persistence is negatively associated with emotion dysregulation and aggression. Temperamental reactivity is negatively associated with emotion regulation and positively associated with emotion dysregulation, aggression and anxiety. Parenting stress was negatively associated with emotion regulation and positively associated with emotion dysregulation, aggression and anxiety in children.