Article

A study on the relationships between mothers' daily stresses, degrees of emotional expressiveness, and children's internalizing behavior problems

Author

송하나

Information

pp. 1~15 / 2010 Vol.17 No.3

Abstract

This study examined mutual relationships between mothers' daily stresses, degrees of emotional expressiveness, and children's internalizing behavior problems. One hundred and fourteen preschool children (56 boys and 58 girls) between the age of four to six years, and their mothers participated in this study. Mothers and children visited a laboratory, and completed three questionnaires. Data were analyzed using path analyses. Our results indicated that mothers' parenting stress and negative expressiveness directly affected children's internalizing behavior problems. In particular, mothers' negative expressiveness mediated the relationship between parenting stress and children's behavior problems. Conversely, children's internalizing behavior problems had a significant impact upon the degrees of parenting stress and negative expressiveness experienced by mothers. These results carry with them certain implications: namely, that mothers' negative expressiveness and parenting stress can be risk factors in relation to the positive emotional interactions between mothers and their children.

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