Psychological Development and Education ›› 2023, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (5): 702-709.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2023.05.11

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The Relationship between Maternal Parenting Stress and Preschool Children's Anxiety: The Mediating Effect of Mother-child Conflict and the Moderating Effect of Maternal Mindfulness

WANG Yingjie1, LUAN Jinxin2, LI Yan2   

  1. 1. School of Teacher Education, Huzhou University, Huzhou 313000;
    2. Shanghai Early Childhood Education College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234
  • Published:2023-09-11
  • Supported by:
    The project was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFC1905301);National Natural Science Foundation of China (22078115,21776108,21690083,22008078).

Abstract: This study selected 480 mothers of 4~6-year-old children from four public kindergartens in Shanghai, and we used a series of questionnaires to explore the relationship between mother's parenting stress and preschool children's anxiety, as well as the role of parent-child relationship and maternal mindfulness. The results show that: (1) mother's parenting stress significantly positively predicts preschool children's anxiety; (2) parent-child conflict plays a mediating role between mother's parenting stress and preschool children's anxiety; (3) maternal mindfulness moderates the relationship between parenting stress and preschool children's anxiety and parent-child conflict in the mediation model, that is, at a high level of mindfulness, maternal parenting stress has less effect on children's anxiety through parent-child conflict, and maternal parenting stress has also less effect on preschool children's anxiety. The results reveal the mechanism of maternal parenting stress on preschool children's anxiety, it provides a theoretical basis for practical intervention from the perspective of family context in the future.

Key words: mothers, parenting stress, preschool children's anxiety, parent-child conflict, mindfulness

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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