The mediating effect of parenting style on the relationship between first-born children’s temperament and psychological adaptation

Abstract

Chinese first-born children need to learn how to get along with their siblings after the implementation of the universal two-child policy in 2016. We investigated the relationships between temperament, parenting style, and psychological adjustment among firstborns. The current study employed a questionnaire survey conducted in four regions in China. A total of 524 Chinese two-child families participated in the study; the firstborns were between 3 and 8 years old and their younger siblings were between 1 month and 5 years old. The results indicated that (1) children’s temperament subscales were significantly related to parenting style subscales and psychological adaptation. Moreover, the parenting style subscales were significantly related to psychological adaptation, and (2) authoritarian parenting partially mediated the relationship between approach or withdrawal and psychological adjustment.