Parenting Styles and Health Risk Behavior of Left-Behind Children: The Mediating Effect of Cognitive Emotion Regulation

Abstract

This study is to investigate the role of cognitive emotion regulation in the relationship between parenting styles and health risk behavior in left-behind children. Totally, 404 left-behind children were surveyed with the Egna Minnen av Barndoms Uppfostran (EMBU), the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire-Chinese Version (CERQ-C) and the Adolescent Health Related Risky Behavior Inventory (AHRBI). The results showed that: (1) The health risk behaviors of left-behind children were significantly negatively correlated with authoritative parenting styles (r = −0.46 to −0.26, P < 0.01) and positive cognitive emotion regulations (except Acceptance, r = −0.44 to −0.19, P < 0.01), and significantly positively correlated with authoritarian & permissive/neglecting parenting styles (r = 0.19–0.40, P < 0.01) and negative cognitive emotion regulations (except Self-blame, r = 0.25–0.52, P < 0.01). (2) Authoritative parenting styles were significantly positively correlated with positive cognitive emotion regulations (r = 0.13–0.47, P < 0.01), and significantly negatively correlated with negative cognitive emotion regulations (except Self-blame, r = −0.21 to −0.30, P < 0.01). Authoritarian & permissive/neglecting parenting styles were significantly negatively correlated with positive cognitive emotion regulations (r = −0.19 to −0.11, P < 0.05), and significantly positively correlated with negative cognitive emotion regulations (except Self-blame, r = 0.12–0.38, P < 0.05). (3) The structural equation models demonstrated that cognitive emotion regulation served as a partial mediator between authoritative, authoritarian and permissive/neglecting parenting styles and the health risk behaviors of left-behind children, accounting for the total effect from 7.55% to 66.92%. The results suggests that parenting styles impact the health risk behaviors in left-behind children mainly via the mediating effect of cognitive emotion regulation.