Patterns of Co-Occurring Maternal and Paternal Parenting and Child Behavioral Adjustment Identified in Chinese Families

Abstract

This study advanced a rationale for employing a person-centered approach to examine covariations between parenting dimensions and child behaviors, using family-level (triadic) profiles that simultaneously included multiple maternal and paternal parenting dimensions and child behaviors as indicators. Participants included 385 preschool children (M_age = 4.8 years, SD = 0.41, 53% boys) and their parents from Beijing and Dalian, China. Results revealed five family profiles that extend existing research, which commonly separates parenting profiles from child behaviors. The five profiles included (1) joint-parents authoritative with behaviorally competent children, (2) joint-parents intrusive/father coercive with socially withdrawn children, (3) joint-parents coercive and controlling with aggressive children, (4) joint parents uninvolved with behaviorally problematic children, and (5) joint-parents median average with behaviorally thriving children. Findings yielded unique results and demonstrated a new path for studying co-occurring parenting and child behaviors from a more holistic perspective.

Keywords

person-centered approach family-level profiles Chinese parenting maternal and paternal parenting child social behaviors

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