Abstract
Our study examined the interrelations between the psychosocial well-being of parents at the time of pregnancy and the social competence of their three-year-old child. Whereas most previous studies have linked the psychosocial well-being of one parent to the social development of their child, newer research has highlighted the importance of examining the psychosocial well-being of both parents and its’ effects to the development of the child. This study used data from the Steps to the Healthy Development and Well-being of Children follow-up study (The STEPS Study, n = 1075) to examine the interrelations between the psychosocial well-being of both the mother and the father during the period of pregnancy and the social competence of their three-year-old child. The interrelations between the psychosocial well-being of one parent and the social competence of their child were studied with regression analyses, and family-level interrelations were modeled with a latent profile analysis of family-level psychosocial well-being. At the dyadic level, the poorer psychosocial well-being of one parent during the pregnancy period mostly predicted poorer social competence in their child. However, at the family level, these links were not statistically significant. The higher level of psychosocial well-being experienced by one parent seemed to protect the development of the social competence of their child. This study emphasizes the need to consider the psychosocial well-being of both parents as a factor that influences the social development of their child.
Highlights
IntroductionZhou et al (2017) studied how mother-reported inter-parental conflict related to the behavioral problems of young children
Afterwards, we administered a latent profile analysis (LPA), a method of structural equation modeling. This was done to gain information on parental psychosocial well-being at the family level, as well as on the consequences of parental psychosocial well-being on the social competence of their children
Our results reveal that if even one parent experiences positive psychosocial well-being, this parent can support the well-being and social development of their child
Summary
Zhou et al (2017) studied how mother-reported inter-parental conflict related to the behavioral problems of young children. They found that inter-parental conflict during the child’s first year was directly associated with the externalizing problems of children at age two (Zhou et al 2017). This study is grounded in both Bandura’s (1963) and Vygotsky’s (1978) seminal work, and, the relationship between parental psychosocial well-being and the social development of a child is considered according to the concepts of social learning and sociocultural theory. The family is considered as the sociocultural context of the growing child, in which he/she learns how to act in social situations
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