DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2196340/v1
Background: Work-family conflict (WFC) can increase maternal anxiety and the risk of children’s problem behaviors, but maternal trait mindfulness level moderates this association during the COVID-19 epidemic. While most studies during the epidemic investigated the relationship between WFC and maternal anxiety in developed countries, no studies were found to examine this association in China. Besides, the mediating effects of maternal anxiety and moderating effects of trait mindfulness on the relationship between WFC and preschool children’s problem behaviors are still unclear. So, this study examined the association between mothers’ WFC and preschoolers’ problem behaviors and identified the roles of maternal anxiety as a mediator and trait mindfulness as a moderator during the COVID-19 epidemic.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a sample of 1068 Chinese preschoolers and their mothers from coastal cities in southern China were investigated. Data were collected using demographic questionnaires, Carlson’s WFC scale, Ma’s Parenting Anxiety Scale, Goodman’s SDQ Scale, and Brown and Ryan’s Trait Mindfulness Scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 and Process 3.3.
Results: WFC had a positive and direct association with problem behaviors in preschoolers (β=0.118, t-value=3.880, p<0.001). WFC also had a positive and direct association with maternal anxiety (β=0.480, t-value=18.034, p<0.001). And maternal anxiety had a positive and direct association with preschoolers’ problem behaviors (β=0.415, t-value=13.584, p<0.001). The mediating effect value of maternal anxiety between WFC and preschoolers’ problem behaviors was 0.199, and the moderating effect value of trait mindfulness between maternal anxiety and preschoolers’ problem behaviors was -0.078.
Conclusions: WFC can be positively associated with preschoolers’ problem behaviors, and maternal anxiety is an important mediator of this association. So, WFC can cause maternal anxiety and lead to more problematic behaviors in children. Therefore, relevant departments should pay attention to this problem and adopt practical strategies to help mothers cope with high levels of work-family conflict, so as to alleviate maternal anxiety and reduce the preschoolers’ problem behaviors. Besides, Maternal anxiety can be positively associated with preschoolers’ problem behaviors, and trait mindfulness is an important moderator of this association. Because trait mindfulness can alleviate the negative effects of maternal anxiety on children, mothers should attend more mindfulness training courses to try to improve their mindfulness level.
Problem behavior, known as behavior distress, bad behavior, and so on, is an important indicator of individual social adaptation. Onyskiw believes that problem behavior is a series of behaviors that are contrary to common sense standards in the process of children’s socialization [1], including the problem behaviors of emotion, attention deficit, conduct, and peer relationship [2]. While Achebach (1991) used a dichotomy to divide problem behaviors into internalized problem behaviors and externalized problem behaviors [3]. Internalized problem behaviors refer to the negative emotions that individuals experience physiologically, including anxiety, depression, withdrawal, and other emotional problems [4]. Externalized problem behaviors refer to non-adaptive behaviors that violate social norms [5], including disciplinary and aggressive behaviors. Numerous studies have shown that both internalized and externalized problem behaviors are distributed in the preschool period. In recent years, children’s problem behaviors have become increasingly younger [6]. Due to the rapid physical and mental development of individuals in the preschool period, and at the same time individuals experience changes in the environment from home to school, it is easier for preschoolers to produce problem behaviors [7]. The emergence of problem behaviors will directly affect preschoolers learning knowledge and skills. Besides, problem behaviors in early childhood will continue into adolescence if not intervened, eventually leading to an increase in the probability of adverse behaviors such as substance abuse in adolescence and even adulthood [8–10]. Rutter’s early research found that more than 70% of the subjects with antisocial problem behaviors in adulthood had a strong tendency toward antisocial behaviors in childhood [11]. Therefore, problem behaviors in early childhood have a great impact on individual growth.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, many countries have implemented their own social distancing measures to curb its spread, which has also fundamentally changed mothers’ routines in the home and work spheres [12, 13]. Many mothers are required to take full responsibility for the supervision, care, and education of their children during working hours as a result of the measures that have resulted in a significant increase in the time children spend with their mothers. So, a significant proportion of mothers will bring work into the family [14], which also creates new risks for parent-child relationships and child development [15, 16]. Research has found that mothers working from home blur the boundaries between work and parenting roles [17] and that mothers managing these boundaries deplete their own psychological resources and negatively impact their parenting behaviors [18]. Meanwhile, as these boundaries become more permeable [17], this also leads to more tasks, longer working hours, more work-family conflict, and increased stress, especially when they spend overtime working [19–21]. As a result, mothers working from home are likely to amplify the negative spillovers of work-related stress to parent-child relationships, which in turn lead to more problem behaviors in children [22]. Research has found that the COVID-19 epidemic has increased work-family conflict for many mothers [23]. And both pre-pandemic and during-pandemic studies have shown that work-family conflict is associated with higher levels of stress [24] and health problems [25], and high levels of work-family conflict often leads to lower maternal sensitivity [26, 27], which creates a greater risk of increased problem behaviors in children [28]. Before the epidemic, some scholars have already confirmed that mothers’ work-family conflict can significantly predict children’s anxiety and other internalized problem behaviors [29]. However, the mechanistic research on the relationship between mothers’ work-family conflict and preschoolers’ problem behaviors caused by the COVID-19 epidemic is still very limited. Therefore, this study will explore the association between work-family conflict and preschoolers’ problem behaviors during the COVID-19 epidemic, and the underlying mechanisms of maternal anxiety and trait mindfulness in the Chinese context.
Staines proposed the spillover theory of the relationship between work and family in 1980. This theory holds that work-family conflict will have adverse effects on both work and family, while work-family conflict, as a stressor, can extend the negative impact of mothers’ negative emotional level on parent-child relationships, resulting in maladaptive problems in children [30, 31]. It can even cause distress and anxiety in children, leading to a series of problem behaviors [32]. According to social learning theory, mothers’ negative emotions (such as anxiety) can affect the child’s problem behaviors level through the role of genetics and parenting style [33]. A survey study using a family research design, after controlling for the influence of parental raters, also showed that maternal anxiety symptoms significantly predicted children’s problem behaviors [34]. Meanwhile, a large cohort study conducted in Norway using multilevel analysis modeling found that maternal anxiety was significantly associated with internalized problems in preschoolers [35]. The findings of Teyhan suggested that maternal anxiety symptoms were significantly associated with children’s internalized problems and abnormal SDQ difficulty total scores [36]. In addition, a large-scale cross-sectional study conducted by Chinese scholars found that during the COVID-19 epidemic, maternal anxiety had a greater impact on children, that is, the higher the anxiety level of parents, the higher the incidence of children’s problem behaviors [37]. And a long-term, multi-measurement follow-up study conducted by Frigerio before and after the COVID-19 epidemic showed that in a sample of preschoolers, the more severe the mother’s emotional symptoms, the higher incidence of children’s internalized (i.e. emotional responses, anxiety/depression, withdrawal) and externalized (i.e. aggressive behaviors) problems. This also suggests that in stressful settings (such as those created by the COVID-19 epidemic and subsequent illness), mothers’ emotional symptoms may have some effect on the child’s healthy development negative effects [38]. And the results of a follow-up study conducted during the COVID-19 epidemic in Israel also supported a significant association between maternal anxiety and children’s internalized problems [39]. Therefore, this study hypothesizes that maternal anxiety is the mediator between maternal work-family conflict and preschoolers’ problem behaviors during the COVID-19 epidemic.
Ellen Langer believes that mindfulness is a psychological trait and it refers to the degree to which individuals perceive and pay attention to stimuli that occur at the moment, with stability across time and situations [40]. The family interaction theory holds that the interaction between family members and the interaction model between parents and children can effectively explain the formation mechanism of children’s problem behaviors [41]. For preschoolers, mothers are the primary caregivers and significant persons, so young children’s problem behaviors are inevitably influenced by some of the mother’s traits, such as mindfulness [42, 43]. Studies have found that higher levels of mindfulness in mothers tend to predict fewer problem behaviors and positive social adaptation in children [44, 45]. And Siu found that maternal mindfulness levels were negatively correlated with children’s problem behaviors, and high levels of maternal mindfulness helped to improve young children’s problem behaviors [46]. Therefore, this study hypothesizes that maternal trait mindfulness moderates the direct link between work-family conflict, a stressor, and problem behaviors in preschoolers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this study hypothesizes that maternal trait mindfulness moderates the direct link between work-family conflict and problem behaviors in preschoolers during the COVID-19 epidemic.
Research has shown that individuals with trait mindfulness are good at mastering their attention and making non-judgment of what is happening at the moment, which helps to regulate the individual’s emotional state [47, 48]. Individuals with high trait mindfulness are able to look at things dialectically, can quickly get rid of the negative emotions brought about by negative events [49], and are less likely to be influenced by the outside world [50]. On the contrary, individuals with low trait mindfulness have difficulty focusing on the present moment, and stressful events in daily work and life can trigger more severe mood swings [51]. The study by Wei Xu also found that trait mindfulness had a moderating effect on the relationship between stress and individual emotions [50]. For individuals with high trait mindfulness, stress was a weaker positive predictor of their mood. So trait mindfulness plays a mediating role between stressful events and individual emotions. Therefore, when faced with stressful events such as the COVID-19 epidemic, maternal trait mindfulness may be able to alleviate the adverse relationship between work-family conflict and mothers’ own anxiety.
In addition, many scholars in recent years have introduced individual mindfulness into the field of family parenting, which is associated with child development outcomes. The advancement of numerous studies has led to the gradual rise of the Mindfulness-Based Intervention Program (MBI) for mothers. Intervention research results showed that a period of mindfulness intervention for mothers could effectively reduce mothers’ own stress and parenting pressure, improve anxiety and other emotional problems and negative parenting behaviors, and reduce children’s problem behaviors [44, 52]. Besides, family system theory believes that the various family factors that affect children’s development do not work independently, but also have interactive joint effects [31], that is, maternal trait mindfulness may indirectly affect preschool children’s development through the combined effects of maternal anxiety and work-family conflict. Research confirmed that mothers’ mindfulness not only affected their own physical and mental health, but also migrated to their parenting behaviors, thus indirectly affecting child development [42, 53, 54]. Mothers with a higher level of mindfulness are able to perceive and pay attention to the current experience in life and have strong self-compassion [55]. In addition, in parent-child interaction, they are often well aware of negative emotional experiences, effectively regulate and improve their own emotional states, better perceive children’s feelings, promote children’s healthy development, and reduce the risk of children’s problem behaviors [56, 57]. Thus, maternal trait mindfulness may also moderate the association between maternal anxiety and problem behaviors in preschoolers.
Based on the spillover theory [58], social learning theory [33], and family systems theory [31], the present study tested a moderated mediation model to clarify the mechanisms underlying the associations between work-family conflict and preschoolers’ problem behaviors during the COVID-19 epidemic. This integrated model indicates how and when work-family conflict influence preschoolers’ problem behaviors during the COVID-19 epidemic (Fig. 1). Based on the literature review, the following hypothesizes were generated:
Hypothesis 1
Maternal work-family conflict is significantly associated with preschoolers’ problem behaviors.
Hypothesis 2
Maternal anxiety mediates the association between work-family conflict and preschoolers’ problem behaviors.
Hypothesis 3
Direct and/or indirect associations between work-family conflict and preschoolers’ problem behaviors due to maternal anxiety varied by maternal trait mindfulness engagement.
We conducted the study in June 2022. Due to the import of overseas infection cases and other reasons, the situation of the COVID-19 epidemic in China was still severe, during which parents and their children were both at home and mothers spent significantly more time with their children because of the government’s isolation policy. Therefore, there was an unprecedented close connection between parents and their children during the COVID-19 epidemic. Then, we used a cross-sectional online questionnaire to assess the relationship between work-family conflict, maternal anxiety, trait mindfulness, and preschoolers’ problem behaviors during the COVID-19 epidemic. The Research Ethics Committee of our University approved the study.
First, mothers were given a link that opened an online consent form describing their rights, which informed them that the data would be used only for research purposes, participation was voluntary, and refusal to participate and withdrawal from the study would not lead to negative consequences. Then, mothers decided whether they consented to their own and their children’s participation in this study. Only if the mothers and their children agreed to participate was the online survey made available. For those mothers and their children who declined to participate, the survey ended. For all other mothers and their children, the survey began with questions regarding demographics (e.g., age), followed by questions on work-family conflict, maternal anxiety, trait mindfulness, and preschoolers’ problem behaviors.
Finally, the current study recruited 1116 mothers and their children via convenient cluster sampling from a city in Southeast China; 48 parents and their children refused to participate and withdrew from the study, for a non-response rate was 4.30% (48/1116). The final effective sample included 1068 mothers and their children. Of the children, 39, 424, 369, and 236 were in the infant, small, middle, and large classes, respectively. Child participants were aged between 2.5 and 6.8 years (M = 4.50, SD = 0.84years; 49.81%boys). And in the mother samples, the participants were aged between 23 and 48 years (M = 38.09, SD = 8.92years).
The Work-Family Conflict Scale was developed by Carlson [59]. The scale consists of 18 items divided among the dimensions of work-family and family-work. And each dimension is divided into three levels: time-based, behavior-based, and stress-based. Items are answered on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree). In this study, higher scores indicated higher levels of work-family conflict faced by mothers during the COVID-19 epidemic. Cronbach’s α was 0.954 in the current study.
The Parenting Anxiety Scale was developed by Jieran Ma [60]. The scale is divided into two versions. The parent version of the questionnaire was used in this study. The scale consists of 16 items divided among the dimensions of parenting awareness, parenting behaviors, parenting support, and parenting influence. Among them, there are five items each on parenting awareness and parenting behaviors, and three items each on parenting support and parenting influence. Items are answered on a five-point Likert scale (1 = never or almost no to 5 = every day or almost every day). The scale was rated by the mother, with higher scores indicating higher levels of maternal anxiety. In the current study, Cronbach’s α for this questionnaire was 0.804.
The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was developed by Goodman [2]. There are 25 items in total, including four difficulty dimensions (20 items), emotional problems, conduct problems, lack of attention, and peer relationship problems, and the dimension of prosocial behavior strengths (5 items). In this study, four difficulty dimensions were selected to measure the problem behaviors of preschool children, and the mothers judged by using a two-point scale ranging from 0 = very inconsistent to 2 = very consistent according to the daily performance of the preschool children in the past six months. If the score is higher than 17, the child is considered to have problem behaviors. In the current study, Cronbach’s α for this questionnaire was 0.801.
The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) was developed by Brown and Ryan [40]. The scale consists of 15 items (e.g., “I could be experiencing some emotion and not be conscious of it until sometime later”). Items are answered on a five-point Likert scale (1 = almost always to 5 = almost never). All entries are reverse-scored. This study adopted the method of self-rating of mothers, with higher scores indicating greater trait mindfulness. In the current study, Cronbach’s α for this questionnaire was 0.920.
Previous studies have shown that maternal anxiety can be influenced by demographic characteristics, such as age and family socioeconomic status (SES) [61–64]. And Preschoolers’ problem behaviors also can be influenced by demographic characteristics, such as gender, age, and family socioeconomic status (SES) [65–68]. These background variables were used as covariates in the analyses; gender was coded as 0 = girl, 1 = boy. For family SES, we collected household income, parents’ education, and parents’ occupations. A principal components analysis was performed, with family SES computed using the following formula: Family SES = (β1 × Z income + β2 × Z education + β3 × Z occupation) / εf, where β1–3 are the factor loadings and εf is the eigenvalue for the first factor [69]. In the current study, the participants’ family SES range was − 1.656 to 2.222.
First, descriptive statistics and correlations were obtained. Second, we examined the mediation effect of maternal anxiety. Third, we further examined whether the mediation process was moderated by maternal trait mindfulness. The analysis of moderated mediation models was performed using Hayes’s [70] PROCESS macro (Model 4 and 59). In all analyses, we included preschoolers’ gender, age, maternal age, and family SES as control variables.
The data in this study were all from the mother’s report. To control for the common method biases in this study, Harman’s single-factor test was conducted [71]. The results indicated that altogether fourteen factors had an Eigenvalue of more than 1 and could jointly explain 25.08% of the variance, which is less than the critical value (40%). Therefore, there were no significant common method biases in this study.
Table 1 shows the means, standard deviations, and Pearson’s correlation coefficients for all variables. Work-family conflict and maternal anxiety were significantly positively associated with preschoolers’ problem behaviors, and the three variables were significantly negatively associated with maternal trait mindfulness.
| M ± SD | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.Gender | - | - | |||||||
| 2.Pediatric age | 4.50 ± 0.84 | -0.017 | - | ||||||
| 3.Maternal age | 36.42 ± 4.97 | 0.027 | 0.079** | - | |||||
| 4.Family SES | -1.66 ± 2.22 | -0.015 | -0.010 | -0.001 | - | ||||
| 5.Work-family’ conflict | 45.55 ± 15.06 | 0.040 | 0.023 | 0.033 | -0.102** | - | |||
| 6.Maternal anxiety | 38.09 ± 8.92 | 0.068* | 0.052 | -0.050 | -0.139*** | 0.490*** | - | ||
| 7.Preschoolers’ problem behaviors | 8.95 ± 4.47 | 0.111*** | 0.032 | -0.106** | -0.113*** | 0.326*** | 0.489*** | - | |
| 8.Trait mindfulness | 58.12 ± 10.45 | -0.036 | -0.044 | 0.025 | 0.078* | -0.595*** | -0.522*** | -0.378*** | - |
| Note. N = 1068; gender was dummy coded (0 = male, 1 = female); * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001. | |||||||||
To test Hypothesis 1 and Hypothesis 2, we adopted the steps recommended by predecessors to test the mediation effect [72], and used regression analyses in turn, as shown in Table 2. Eq. 1 suggested that work-family conflict had a significant impact on problem behaviors in preschoolers (β = 0.317, p < 0.001). Eq. 2 suggested that the effect of work-family conflict on maternal anxiety was significant (β = 0.480, p < 0.001). And Eq. 3 suggested that included in the regression equation, both work-family conflict and maternal could significantly positively predict preschoolers’ problem behaviors (β = 0.118, p < 0.001; β = 0.415, p < 0.001), which demonstrated that maternal anxiety mediated the association between work-family conflict and preschoolers’ problem behaviors.
| Predictors | Equation 1 | Equation 2 | Equation 3 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dependent: PPB | Dependent: MA | Dependent: PPB | |||||
| β | t | β | t | β | t | ||
| WFC | 0.317 | 11.036*** | 0.480 | 18.034*** | 0.118 | 3.880*** | |
| MA | 0.415 | 13.584*** | |||||
| R2 | 0.137 | 0.257 | 0.265 | ||||
| F | 33.763*** | 73.462*** | 63.754*** | ||||
| Note. N = 1068. The beta values are standardized coefficients. WFC: work-family conflict; PPB: preschoolers’ problem behaviors; MA: maternal anxiety. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. | |||||||
In this study, we employed Hayes [73] PROCESS macro for SPSS (Model 4) to test this moderated mediation model. The mediating effect value was 0.199, and the 95% confidence interval was (0.163, 0.240), excluding 0, as shown in Table 3; the direct effect value after controlling for mediating variables was 0.118 (p < 0.001). And results showed that maternal anxiety had a significant relationship between work-family conflict and preschoolers’ problem behaviors, with a ratio of 0.199/ (0.199 + 0.118) accounting for 62.90% of the total effect.
| Path | Indirect effect | Bootstrap standard errors | 95% CI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower | Upper | |||
| WFC to PPB through MA | 0.1992 | 0.0197 | 0.1617 | 0.2400 |
| Note. N = 1068. WFC: work-family conflict; PPB: preschoolers’ problem behaviors; MA: maternal anxiety. | ||||
To test Hypothesis 1 and Hypothesis 2, we adopted the steps recommended by predecessors to test the mediation effect [74], and used regression analyses in turn, as shown in Table 4. Eq. 1 suggested that when trait mindfulness was not included as a moderator in the regression equation, work-family conflict had a significant effect on preschoolers’ problem behaviors (β = 0.156, p < 0.001), and this effect was not mediated by maternal trait mindfulness (p > 0.05). After incorporating trait mindfulness as a moderator into the regression equation, Eq. 2 showed that work-family conflict had a significant effect on maternal anxiety (β = 0.269, p < 0.001), and this effect was not mediated by maternal trait mindfulness (p > 0.05). Eq. 3 suggested that the effect of work-family conflict on preschoolers’ problem behaviors was not significant (p > 0.05), but maternal anxiety had a significant main effect on preschoolers’ problem behaviors (β = 0.360, p < 0.001), and more importantly, maternal trait mindfulness significantly moderated this relationship (β = -0.078, p < 0.01). The above results suggested that trait mindfulness could moderate the relationship between maternal anxiety and preschoolers’ problem behaviors.
| Predictors | Equation 1 | Equation 2 | Equation 3 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dependent: PPB | Dependent: MA | Dependent: PPB | |||||
| β | t | β | t | β | t | ||
| WFC | 0.156 | 4.459*** | 0.269 | 8.529*** | 0.059 | 1.749 | |
| TM | -0.271 | -7.721*** | -0.354 | -11.158*** | -0.138 | -3.962*** | |
| WFC×TM | -0.006 | -0.240 | 0.023 | 1.027 | 0.027 | 0.954 | |
| MA | 0.360 | 11.150*** | |||||
| MA×TM | -0.078 | -2.850** | |||||
| R2 | 0.185 | 0.336 | 0.283 | ||||
| F | 34.348*** | 76.459*** | 46.291*** | ||||
| Note. N = 1068. The beta values are standardized coefficients. WFC: work-family conflict; PPB: preschoolers’ problem behaviors; MA: maternal anxiety; TM: trait mindfulness. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. | |||||||
For descriptive purposes, we plotted the relationship between work-family conflict predicting problem behaviors in preschoolers with low and high levels of maternal trait mindfulness engagement (1 SD below the mean and 1 SD above the mean, respectively; Fig. 2). Simple slope tests indicated that for mothers with a high level of maternal trait mindfulness (M + 1SD), maternal anxiety positively predicted preschoolers’ problem behaviors (β = 0.282, p < 0.001). However, for mothers with a high level of maternal trait mindfulness (M-1SD), the effect of maternal anxiety on preschoolers’ problem behaviors was much stronger (β = 0.438, p < 0.001), indicating that the higher the level of maternal trait mindfulness, the weaker the effect of maternal anxiety on preschoolers’ problem behaviors.
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.
The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to ethic issues involving participant’s data and privacy but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the support of School of Education, Wenzhou University.
This study was funded by Shandong Provincial Social Science Planning Research Project: Major Cultivating Projects of Leading Talents in Philosophy and Social Sciences of Zhejiang Province “Aiming for Common Prosperity: Improvement and Evaluation of Early Childcare Quality Driven by Multimodal Data Fusion” (23YJRC13ZD).
Author information
Institute of International Education, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China
Zhanmei Song
School of Education, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China
Jie Huang,Jingfeng Yan, Jiayang Ye, Qiaozhen Wu, Hanyue Wang, Xiaonan Sun
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
Rongqi Li
Zhanmei Song: Conceptualization. Jie Huang: Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft. Rongqi Li: Writing – review & editing, Project administration. Jingfeng Yan: Conceptualization, Methodology. Jiayang Ye: Validation, Formal analysis. Qiaozhen Wu: Writing-original draft. Hanyue Wang: Data curation. Xiaonan Sun: Software.
Correspondence to Jie Huang.
Ethics approval and consent to participate
This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Wenzhou University (KY2022-96). All participants provided written informed consent. All procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Competing interests
All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.