Bidirectional Longitudinal Relations Between Parent-Grandparent Co-parenting Relationships and Chinese Children's Effortful Control During Early Childhood.

Xiaowei Li,Siyu Zhou,Yuanfang Guo

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00152

Abstract

Parent–grandparent co-parenting has become a common mode in Chinese families; however, its correlation with children’s development in the long run remains unclear. Herein, a 10-month follow-up survey was conducted among 253 preschool children and their parents from Chinese parent–grandparent co-parenting families. It aimed to examine the bidirectional longitudinal correlation of children’s effortful control with mother–grandparent and father–grandparent co-parenting relationships, as well as the dissimilarity of the two co-parenting relationships. In addition, the moderating role of maternal parenting self-efficacy in these relationships was also investigated. A cross-lagged model showed that the (1) mother–grandparent co-parenting relationship (T1) positively predicted the father–grandparent co-parenting relationship (T2), (2) dissimilarity of the mother–grandparent and father–grandparent co-parenting relationships (T1) negatively predicted children’s effortful control (T2), and (3) maternal parenting self-efficacy significantly moderated the predictive effect of children’s effortful control on a father–grandparent co-parenting relationship. However, a further simple slope analysis showed that after controlling the father–grandparent co-parenting relationship (T1), the children’s effortful control (T1) did not significantly predict the father–grandparent co-parenting relationship (T2) either in the high or low maternal parenting self-efficacy group. These results indicated that in Chinese parent–grandparent co-parenting families, the father-grandparent co-parenting relationship was influenced by the mother–grandparent co-parenting relationship, and similar mother–grandparent and father–grandparent co-parenting relationships were conducive to the development of the children’s effortful control.

Highlights

Effortful Control is the ability to inhibit a dominant response and/or to activate a subdominant response, to plan, and to detect errors (Rothbart and Rueda, 2005)
As one of the important dimensions of temperament, effortful control is subject to great impacts from biological and genetic factors
The results showed that (1) the scores of the children’s effortful control, mother– grandparent co-parenting relationship, and father–grandparent co-parenting relationship at T1 were all significantly positively correlated with their own scores at T2; (2) the mother–grandparent co-parenting relationship was positively correlated with the father–grandparent coparenting relationship both at T1 and T2; (3) both the mother–grandparent co-parenting relationship and father–grandparent co-parenting relationship at T1 were significantly positively correlated with the children’s effortful control at T2

Summary

Introduction

Effortful Control is the ability to inhibit a dominant response and/or to activate a subdominant response, to plan, and to detect errors (Rothbart and Rueda, 2005). Previous studies confirmed that both mother and father could help children learn emotional and behavioral control through appropriate parenting behaviors such as guidance, demonstration, and correction (Gartstein and Fagot, 2003; Eiden et al, 2004). Parents share the responsibility of raising children by building a co-parenting relationship (Feinberg, 2003). Such a situation may be even more complex in Chinese families with young children, where other roles in addition to the mother and father are involved in the co-parenting relationship. Owing to the dual pressure of work and life, young parents may not have enough time and energy to take care of their children. A typical co-parenting mode consisting of parents and grandparents has formed and become popular in China’s society these days (Li et al, 2016)

Results

Discussion

Conclusion