Latent Profiles of Maternal Parenting Stress Moderate the Relationship Between Overparenting and Young Children’s Social–Emotional Competence

This study examined how maternal parenting stress and overparenting are associated with young children’s social–emotional competence using both variable-centered and person-centered approaches. A total of 445 mothers of young children completed measures of parenting stress, overparenting, and children’s social–emotional competence. Variable-centered analyses showed that positive experience was associated with children’s social–emotional competence through overparenting. Latent profile analysis identified three maternal parenting stress profiles based on different combinations of positive experience and strain, namely disengaged, engaged–high-strain, and engaged–low-strain. Children of mothers in the engaged–low-strain profile showed the highest levels of social–emotional competence, whereas those in the disengaged profile showed the lowest levels. Further analyses showed that the association between overparenting and children’s social–emotional competence differed across maternal stress profiles. This association was significantly stronger among mothers with high positive experience and low strain than among mothers experiencing high strain. These findings suggest that the association between overparenting and children’s development depends on mothers’ broader parenting stress profiles. They also highlight the importance of considering the heterogeneous and two-sided nature of maternal parenting stress when examining its implications for children’s social–emotional competence.