The Mediating Effect of Perceived Stress in the Relationship between Parenting Stress and Children’s Emotion Regulation

Abstract

To study the relationship between parenting stress and children’s emotion regulation; and the mediating effect of perceived stress, the present study was done. Data on the study variables were received from 200 parents of children 6 to 12 years through online. Results revealed that parenting stress is significantly negatively associated to emotion regulation (β= -.264, t=2.619, p< 0.01) and positively to negativity (β= .329, t=4.531, p< 0.01), the dimension of children’s emotion regulation construct. Parenting stress is found to be significantly associated with perceived stress (β= 0.38, t=6.061. p< 0.01) and parents’ perceived stress was found to be significantly associated with emotion regulation (β= 0.298, t=3.299. p< 0.01) and negativity (β= 0.173, t=1.974. p< 0.05). Perceived stress partially mediated the relationship between parenting stress and emotion regulation (β=.0.11, t=2.68, p< 0.01). However perceived stress did not mediate the relationship between parenting stress and negativity (β=.0.11, t=1.90, p> 0.05). Implications for parents are discussed.