The Indirect Effects of Fathers’ Parenting Style and Parent Emotion Regulation on the Relationship Between Father Self-Efficacy and Children’s Mental Health Difficulties

Alicia Carbone, Carmela Pestell, Thom Nevill and Vincent Mancini ()
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Alicia Carbone: School of Psychological Science, The University of Western Australia, Crawley 6009, Australia
Carmela Pestell: School of Psychological Science, The University of Western Australia, Crawley 6009, Australia
Thom Nevill: The Kids Research Institute Australia, Nedlands 6009, Australia
Vincent Mancini: The Kids Research Institute Australia, Nedlands 6009, Australia

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 22, issue 1, 1-22

Abstract: Improving parental self-efficacy has been linked with reductions in child mental health difficulties; however, underlying mechanisms remain unclear, especially for fathers. This study investigated whether father self-efficacy influences child mental health difficulties indirectly through parenting style and parent-facilitated regulation of children’s negative emotions. A community sample of American fathers ( N = 350, M = 39.45 years old) completed self-reports on father self-efficacy, parenting styles, parent-facilitated emotion regulation, and their children’s mental health difficulties (aged 4–12). Path analysis was used to test a cross-sectional, parallel–sequential indirect effect model. Father self-efficacy had a significant indirect effect on child mental health difficulties via three significant pathways of permissive parenting, authoritative parenting–acceptance of child’s negative emotions, and authoritarian parenting–avoidance of child’s negative emotions. Our model explained a moderate amount of variance in child mental health difficulties. The findings support promoting father self-efficacy through parenting interventions and highlight parenting beliefs as important for clinicians providing child mental health care.

Keywords: father self-efficacy; parenting styles; child mental health; parent emotion regulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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