Parenting challenges among urban Chinese parents of children aged 2–6: a combined GEE and fsQCA approach

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This study identified the most prevalent parenting challenges perceived as difficult to address among urban Chinese parents of children and examined how child and family factors interact to form configurations associated with elevated perceived difficulty. A total of 1,865 parents of children aged 2–6 years participated across three study phases, with 1,368 completing the Parenting Challenges Questionnaire (PCQ), which was developed through semi-structured interviews, pilot testing, and psychometric evaluation, to assess perceived difficulty in addressing each challenge. Six challenges were most frequently rated as difficult to address: Educational Planning, Emotion Regulation, Persistence/Attention, Parent–Child Communication, Daily Living Skills, and Autonomy. Generalized estimating equation (GEE) analyses indicated that having a boy child, having a first-born child, grandparent involvement, lower kindergarten grade, and paternal age ≥ 40 years were associated with increased odds of perceiving greater difficulty. Furthermore, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) identified three family profiles associated with elevated perceived difficulty, with having a first-born child and grandparent involvement consistently present as core conditions across configurations. These profiles represented resource-vulnerable families, early-preschool adaptation families, and families raising boys. These findings highlight the role of child characteristics and family contexts in shaping parents’ perceived difficulty and inform the development of targeted, family-centered support programs.