What does this research mean for the field?

There is a bidirectional relationship between parenting self-efficacy and child socioemotional adjustment, where child emotional problems and prosocial behaviors influence subsequent parenting self-efficacy, and lower parenting self-efficacy predicts subsequent increases in child conduct and emotional problems. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.INCREMENTAL. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To examine the bidirectional interplay between maternal parenting self-efficacy and child socioemotional adjustment during early childhood.

September 3, 2026European Journal of Developmental PsychologyOpen Access

Parenting self-efficacy as an antecedent and response to child socioemotional adjustment

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Authors

BLBrett LaursenMykolas Romeris University MLMary Page Leggett‐JamesUniversity of Fort Lauderdale DBDorthe BlesesCenter for Applied Linguistics

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Implication

Longitudinal study reveals bidirectional links between parental confidence and emotional adjustment in young children, indicating that parent self-efficacy both shapes and responds to child behavior.

Key Points

To examine the bidirectional interplay between maternal parenting self-efficacy and child socioemotional adjustment during early childhood.
Survey-based longitudinal cohort study of N=817 mothers (mean age 37.5 years) and their kindergarten or first-grade children (410 girls, 407 boys) across Denmark.
Data collected across two time points approximately 6–8 months apart assessing parenting self-efficacy, conduct problems, emotional problems, and prosocial behaviour.
Bidirectional associations evaluated using longitudinal path analyses to distinguish child-driven from parent-driven effects.
Child-driven effects emerged such that higher baseline emotional problems anticipated declines in parenting self-efficacy, whereas higher baseline prosocial behaviour predicted increases in parenting self-efficacy.
Baseline child conduct problems showed no significant longitudinal effect on subsequent parenting self-efficacy.
Parent-driven effects indicated that lower initial parenting self-efficacy predicted subsequent increases in both child conduct problems and emotional problems.

Cite This Study

Laursen et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a993586636c6408cfa7dcd0 https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2026.2720638

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Implication

Longitudinal study reveals bidirectional links between parental confidence and emotional adjustment in young children, indicating that parent self-efficacy both shapes and responds to child behavior.

Parenting self-efficacy as an antecedent and response to child socioemotional adjustment

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

Parenting self-efficacy as an antecedent and response to child socioemotional adjustment

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

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