As expected, the current study found a significant relationship between work-family conflict and preschoolers’ problem behaviors during the COVID-19 epidemic, which is similar to previous studies, which supported Hypothesis 1 [15, 16, 22]. The main findings elucidated the psychological mechanisms via which work-family conflict was associated with preschoolers’ problem behaviors by maternal anxiety as a mediator and maternal trait mindfulness as a moderator. The results indicated that the effect of work-family conflict on preschoolers’ problem behaviors occurred via maternal anxiety. Moreover, the relationship between work-family conflict and preschoolers’ problem behaviors via maternal anxiety was moderated by maternal trait mindfulness, which indicated that maternal trait mindfulness provided an important protective role against preschoolers’ problem behaviors during the COVID-19 epidemic.
Maternal anxiety mediated the association between work-family conflict and preschoolers’ problem behaviors, thereby supporting Hypothesis 2. In the current study, we extracted work-family conflict associated with the COVID-19 epidemic as a risk factor and maternal anxiety as an intermediary factor [30, 31] based on the spillover theory [58] and social learning theory [33]. The results also supported the spillover theory [58] and social learning theory [33] demonstrating that both work-family conflict (risk factor) and maternal anxiety (intermediary factor) were important predictors of preschoolers’ problem behaviors, and maternal anxiety (intermediary factor) played an important mediating role in the association between work-family conflict (risk factor) and preschoolers’ problem behaviors.
A higher level of work-family conflict is associated with more maternal anxiety [24, 25] and thereby with more problem behaviors in preschoolers [30, 31]. As a challenge brought to many families, the COVID-19 epidemic has led to a significant increase in more mothers working at home [12–14], and it is also closely related to the physical and mental health of mothers and their children. Thus, COVID-19 and its countermeasures are the most stressful current events for parent-child groups, including mothers working from home and their preschool children, which increases maternal anxiety. And after the impact on the parent-child relationship and mothers’ parenting behaviors, it may lead to more problem behaviors in preschoolers at any time.
The main objective of the study was to explore the moderating effect of maternal trait mindfulness on the direct link between work-family conflict and preschoolers’ problem behaviors, and the indirect link via maternal anxiety. First, the current study found that maternal anxiety was significantly, negatively, and directly associated with work-family conflict and preschoolers’ problem behaviors. Consistent with previous studies, maternal trait mindfulness was an important protective factor against their own negative emotions [47–49] and reduce preschoolers’ problem behaviors [56, 57]. Interventions that raise the level of mindfulness in mothers can effectively improve the individual’s own anxiety and reduce preschoolers’ problem behaviors [44, 52]. Thus, the results indicated that maternal trait mindfulness could act as an effective direct buffer against maternal anxiety and problem behaviors among preschoolers during the COVID-19 epidemic.
Maternal trait mindfulness did not moderate the direct link between work-family conflict and preschoolers’ problem behaviors, and did not moderate the indirect link between work-family conflict and maternal anxiety; only the interaction between maternal anxiety and trait mindfulness significantly predicted preschoolers’ problem behaviors, which partly supported Hypothesis 3. The association between maternal anxiety and preschoolers’ problem behaviors was stronger among mothers with low trait mindfulness than among mothers with high trait mindfulness, which indicates that the association between maternal anxiety and preschoolers’ problem behaviors gradually the improvement of the level of maternal trait mindfulness. Maternal trait mindfulness served as a protective factor, reducing the risk of anxiety symptoms in mothers and the likelihood of preschoolers developing problem behaviors during the COVID-19 epidemic. The results also supported the family systems theory [31]. Based on the family systems theory and the reality of the COVID-19 epidemic, we considered maternal anxiety as a family risk factor [36]. The results demonstrated that maternal trait mindfulness played an important moderating role in the association between work-family conflict and preschoolers’ problem behaviors via maternal anxiety.
In addition, all maternal anxiety leads to problem behavior in preschoolers [75–77]. This indicates that there exist protective factors that moderate the relationship between maternal anxiety and preschoolers’ problem behaviors [41]. As mothers are the primary caregivers and significant persons of their children, young children’s problem behaviors are inevitably influenced by some of the mother’s traits, such as mindfulness [42, 43]. And the moderating role of maternal trait mindfulness was similar to that reported in previous similar studies, as studies have found that maternal mindfulness indirectly affects children’s problem behaviors through mindful parenting and positive and negative parenting behaviors [54]. At the same time, due to age, preschoolers’ own coping methods in the face of negative events are not mature [78]; accordingly, when they are exposed to maternal negative emotions for a long time during the COVID-19 epidemic, they may perform problem behaviors such as anxiety similar to their mothers [79]. And living with anxious mothers for a long time will also have adverse effects on children’s social interaction and academic performance [80]. After a long period of COVID-19 that has rebounded several times, mothers inevitably have a lot of negative emotions when facing the dual pressures of work and family. During the COVID-19 epidemic, while preschoolers were studying at home, mothers were also working from home, which not only resulted in more interactions between mothers and children than usual, but also resulted in a more profound impact on children in all aspects. Therefore, it is urgent to alleviate negative emotions such as maternal anxiety and other negative emotions on children’s development by improving the level of maternal mindfulness.
This study has important implications for preventing preschoolers’ problem behaviors during the COVID-19 epidemic. The work-family conflict caused by COVID-19 present a major challenge to the mental health of mothers and the health development of preschoolers, especially anxiety and other negative emotions [19–21, 23]. Maternal anxiety is an important risk factor for problem behaviors in preschools. According to previous studies and the results of this study, interventions to reduce maternal anxiety during the COVID-19 epidemic can help reduce preschoolers’ problem behaviors. Most importantly, we found that maternal trait mindfulness acted as a buffer against the impact of maternal anxiety on preschoolers’ problem behaviors. Therefore, when the COVID-19 epidemic is far from over, mothers, as the main caregivers of preschoolers, should try to improve their mindfulness through mindfulness training programs for the healthy development of children; this will help alleviate the adverse effects of the COVID-19 epidemic and self-anxiety on preschoolers’ problem behaviors.
Although the current study examined the risk and protective factors for preschoolers’ problem behaviors in the special context of the COVID-19 epidemic, the present study is subject to some limitations. First, we used a cross-sectional study design during the COVID-19 epidemic; therefore, it is unclear whether the epidemic will continue to affect the preschoolers’ problem behaviors after the COVID-19 epidemic ends in China. Second, the participants were recruited only from China; therefore, the findings might not be generalizable to populations from other countries during the COVID-19 epidemic. Finally, the current study recruited participants via convenient cluster sampling from a middle school in Southeast China via an online survey that was conducted during the period of repeated rebound of the epidemic in China. In-depth family background information of participants was not collected. Therefore, future studies could examine in greater depth the different influences of other family characteristics on this research question, such as urban and rural mothers, and single and non-single mothers.