Emotional regulation as protective factor for parents

Abstract

Establishing a healthy growth foundation is crucial in early childhood as it sets the stage for every other phase of life. Young children spend most of their time with their parents during this period. Thus, their interactions with parents and parenting behaviors are important. Researchers have identified parental stress and self-efficacy as the major family factors determining children's emotional and social development. While substantial evidence has also identified internalizing and externalizing behaviors as the predictors of parental stress, parental stress can in turn escalate with children's difficult behavior. This study aimed to investigate parental-level predictors of and protective factors on parental stress and self-efficacy. This was a cross sectional study with self-administrated questionnaires. Parents completed questionnaires which included measures of demographics, parental perception of hyperactive behavior, meta-parenting and emotional regulation as well as parental stress and self-efficacy. One hundred fifteen parents with children aged between 4 to 7 were recruited. Path analysis suggested that reported low income and hyperactivity problems were correlated positively with parental stress and lower self-efficacy. In terms of meta-parenting, assessing had negative association while rumination had positive association with parental stress and lower self-efficacy. With regard to emotion regulation, cognitive reappraisal was found to moderate the relationship between on one hand assessing and rumination, and on the other, parental stress and self-efficacy. Results suggested that emotion regulation could have a possible protective effect on parental sense of well-being. Implications for interventions were discussed.