ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Human Developmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1525077
Roles of parental stress and children’s emotional skills on behavioral responses: Evidence from NSCH parent reports
Provisionally accepted
- 1Open University of China, Beijing, China
- 2Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States
- 3University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, United States
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Early self-regulation is a crucial predictor of how well preschoolers respond to challenging, frustrating, and distracting situations, and examining the mediating role of contextual and individual factors provides insight into how external influences and personal characteristics shape children's ability to navigate these challenges. This study investigates whether specific contextual and individual factors mediate the relationship between preschoolers' self-regulation and their behavioral responses to transitions, frustration, and distraction by utilizing data from the 2021 National Survey of Children's Health, which includes a nationally representative sample of children aged 3 to 5 in the U.S. (N = 11,554). Specifically, we examine how parental stress (contextual) and emotional skills (individual) relate to the connection between preschoolers’ self-regulation and behavioral responsiveness using structural equation modeling. Results reveal that enhanced self-regulation facilitates positive emotional skills, reduces parental stress, and contributes to children’s behavioral responsiveness. Notably, parental stress (contextual) significantly mediates the link between preschoolers’ self-regulation and their behavioral responsiveness, whereas emotional skills (individual) do not. The findings indicate that when considering the link between preschoolers’ ability to regulate themselves and their behavioral responses to transitions, frustration, and distraction, contextual factors such as parental stress have a greater mediating effect than individual emotional skills. This suggests that intervention programs should address parenting-related factors to support preschoolers' behavioral development.
Keywords: Self-regulation, Parental stress, Emotional skills, Behavioral responsiveness, preschool, Parent reports
Received: 11 Nov 2024; Accepted: 04 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Chen, Xia, Xu and Cage. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Fa Zhang, Open University of China, Beijing, China
Chin-Chih Chen, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, 23284, Virginia, United States
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