Parental reports of stress and anxiety in their migrant children in China: The mediating role of parental psychological aggression and corporal punishment.

BACKGROUND

Both ecological system theory and developmental contextualism framework have pointed out that family is one of the most direct microsystem environmental factors affecting children adjustment, especially for migrant children. As two major family microsystem factors, parenting stress and harsh discipline may be closely related to migrant children's anxiety.

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the predictive effects of both mothers' and fathers' parenting stress on Chinese migrant children's anxiety one year later in the single model and the mediating role of mothers' and fathers' harsh discipline (psychological aggression and corporal punishment).

PARTICIPANTS

Participants were 483 mother-father dyads with at least one elementary school-age child of Chinese migrant families.

METHODS

Parenting stress, parental harsh discipline (psychological aggression and corporal punishment), and children's anxiety were all reported by mothers and fathers. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the direct effects of both maternal and paternal parenting stress (T1) on child anxiety (T3), and the mediating roles of both maternal and paternal harsh discipline (psychological aggression and corporal punishment) (T2) in the effects.

RESULTS

Our findings indicated that maternal but not paternal parenting stress had direct effects on Chinese migrant children's anxiety one year later, and both maternal and paternal parenting stress had indirect effects on migrant children's anxiety through parental psychological aggression but not corporal punishment.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings from the present study highlight the importance of simultaneously considering the influence of both maternal and paternal parenting on child adjustment.