The association between parenting stress and young children’s social–emotional competence: a moderated mediation model

Background: As a core construct of early psychological development, the quality of young children's social-emotional competence is not only directly associated with relationship building and emotion regulation, but also shapes lifelong adaptability through cognitive control mechanisms. However, in the face of the significant increase in young children's social-emotional problems globally, although existing studies have confirmed the negative correlation between parental stress and young children's social-emotional competence, systematic studies on the potential association pathways in young children aged 3-6 are still lacking. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used; 402 parents of young children aged 3-6 years in Hebei province were asked to complete online questionnaires, including the Parenting Stress Questionnaire, the Young Children's Social-emotional Competence Questionnaire, and the Mindful Parenting Questionnaire. The mediation model with moderation was tested using the PROCESS plug-in for SPSS. Results: < 0.005, 95% CI = -0.050, -0.002).