母亲抑郁和惩罚对儿童早期问题行为的影响及父亲的保护作用

儿童早期是母亲消极情绪和行为的易感期,母亲抑郁和消极的教养行为可能导致儿童早期多方面的发展问题,而父亲的积极教养则可能对孩子的健康发展起到保护作用。本研究以184名学前儿童的父亲和母亲为被试,考察母亲抑郁情绪和惩罚行为对儿童问题行为的影响及作用机制,以及父亲积极鼓励在其中的调节作用。结果发现:(1)母亲抑郁显著预测儿童的内向问题行为,母亲惩罚显著预测内向和外向问题行为;(2)母亲抑郁完全通过其惩罚行为影响儿童的外向问题行为,部分通过惩罚影响儿童的内向问题行为;(3)父亲积极鼓励显著调节母亲抑郁对外向问题行为的影响,边缘显著调节母亲抑郁对内向问题行为的影响;父亲积极鼓励对母亲惩罚与内、外向问题行为之间的关系的调节不显著,表明积极的父亲鼓励可以缓冲母亲抑郁对儿童问题行为的影响。

The Detriment of Mother’s Depression and Punishment on Preschooler’s Problem Behaviors and the Protecting Father

Young children are more likely to be vulnerable to the negative mother. Maternal depression and negative parenting could be associated with a range of development problem in early childhood, while father's positive parenting behavior could mitigate the adverse effects and protecting children's smoothly developing. A sample of 184 preschoolers' parents (both mother and father) participated in current study devoted to investigating the mechanism of maternal depression and punishment on preschooler's problem behaviors and the buffer effect of father's positive encouragement. Results showed that: (1) maternal depression predicted children's internalizing problem behaviors while maternal punishment predicted both internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors significantly. (2) Maternal punishment mediated the relations between maternal depression and children's externalizing behaviors completely and partially mediated the associations between maternal depression and children's internalizing behaviors. (3) Paternal positive encouragement significantly moderated the influences of maternal depression on children's externalizing behaviors, but marginal positively moderated the impact of maternal depression on children's internalizing behaviors. Otherwise, paternal positive encouragement couldn't moderate the negative effects of mother's punishment on children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors, which implicated that positive paternal encouragement could buffer the negative effects of maternal depression against young children's problem behaviors.