中華心理衛生協會

Purpose: Previous research has confirmed that parental marital satisfaction affects both parenting behavior and children's emotional well-being. Positive parental responsiveness (warmth and timely responses to a child's needs) is crucial for healthy development. Poor marital satisfaction may undermine parenting self-efficacy, reducing parental responsiveness, which in turn may affect children's emotional outcomes. We investigated the relationships among marital satisfaction, parenting self-efficacy, and children's emotional regulation competence as well as the mediating effect of responsive parenting in order to provide a clearer understanding of how marital conflict influences children aged 36 to 48 months and to highlight potential intervention points to support positive parenting. Methods: We utilized responses from parents about 1,666 children (837 boys and 829 girls) on the variables of interest from the first and second waves of the parent questionnaire from the Kids in Taiwan (KIT) National Longitudinal Study of Child Development and Care database. We employed structural equation modeling to analyze the causal relationships among marital satisfaction, parenting self-efficacy, responsive parenting, and their children's emotional regulation competence at two points in time (36 and 48 months). Results: We identified significant positive correlations among marital satisfaction, parenting self-efficacy, and responsive parenting. At both points in time, marital satisfaction and parenting self-efficacy had a significant positive correlation with the children's emotional regulation competence. Also, at both points in time, responsive parenting behavior had a mediating effect on this relationship. At 36 months of age, parenting self-efficacy had a significantly greater influence than marital satisfaction on child emotional regulation competence. Conclusions: Although marital satisfaction, parenting self-efficacy, and responsive parenting all influence children's emotional regulation competence, parenting self-efficacy has the strongest and most enduring impact. We were able to identify this insight through our longitudinal study, which stands in contrast to previous studies that primarily relied on cross-sectional data or single-aspect investigations. Our findings support the spillover hypothesis, suggesting that higher marital satisfaction fosters more responsive parenting, which in turn enhances child emotional development. We recommend interventions that strengthen parenting self-efficacy, such as parenting education and supportive childcare programs, to promote long-term improvements in children's emotional well-being. Future research should explore the role of cultural and family structure differences in these relationships.