Family Economic Hardship and Elementary School-Aged Children’s Behavior Problems: The Mediating Effects of Maternal Parenting Efficacy and Parenting Behavior and the Moderating Role of Maternal Social Support
AUTHOR : 이하나, 강혜영, 정익중
INFORMATION : page. 221~249 / 2022 Vol.29 No.1
ABSTRACT
This study examines how family economic hardship is associated with elementary school-aged children’s behavioral problems through family stress processes and whether maternal social support would moderate the proposed mediated pathways. Using 8, 9, and 10th waves from the Panel Study on Korean Children, 1,598 families were included. Structural equation modeling with bootstrapping procedures was employed to examine whether the associations between family economic hardship and child behavioral problems would be mediated through maternal parenting efficacy and parenting behavior. Group differences depending on the levels of maternal social support were also examined in pathways linking family economic hardship to child behaviors. Results showed that family economic hardship was associated with poor parenting efficacy, which in turn impacted negative parenting. Poor parenting was associated with increased child externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Furthermore, mediating effects of parenting efficacy and parenting were observed. Group differences were also identified in various pathways, suggesting that children and their caregivers in the lower levels of maternal social support were more likely to experience higher levels of negative outcomes. Not only did the findings demonstrate the theoretical pathways proposed by the Family Stress Model, but they also shed light on the importance of building maternal social support networks.