Parental Stress, Inconsistent Discipline and Children’s Emotion Regulation: A Dyadic Analysis

The preschool period is one in which parents experience high levels of stress, with one of the main tasks of parenting being related to promoting children’s emotion regulation through appropriate parental practices. Previous studies focused mainly on investigating the effects of parental stress on children’s broader socio-emotional outcomes (Chazan-Cohen et al., 2009; Neece et al., 2012). Therefore, our study aims to explore the association between parental stress and children’s emotion regulation within a dyadic context, gathering data from both parents, while investigating the mechanisms underlying this association. This cross-sectional study involved 103 parental dyads, with at least one typically developed preschool children aged between three to six years. Parents completed self-reported scales regarding parental stress, inconsistent discipline as a parental practice, and children’s emotional regulation. Dyadic analysis was conducted using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Mediation Model (APIMeM). Results showed that mothers’ and fathers’ stress had a direct negative effect on their perceptions of children’s emotion regulation (the actor effects), and mothers’ stress had a direct negative effect on fathers’ perceptions of children’s emotion regulation (the partner effect). Also, the results of mediation analysis revealed that only in fathers’ case, parental stress exerts an indirect actor effect on children’s emotional regulation through their inconsistent discipline. Fathers’ stress was positively related to fathers’ inconsistent discipline, which, in turn, decreased levels of mothers’ perception of children’s emotional regulation. Future intervention programs should focus on parents’ self-awareness regarding the damaging impact of inconsistent discipline. Also, reducing parents’ stress should constitute one of the main goals of parental-based interventions