The Mediation of Maternal Occupational Skillfulness on Maternal Education and Chinese Preschoolers’ Behavior

Jianghong Liu (), Chun Yee Natalie Au Yeung () and Patrick W. L. Leung ()
Additional contact information
Jianghong Liu: University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
Chun Yee Natalie Au Yeung: The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Patrick W. L. Leung: University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

Child Indicators Research, 2019, vol. 12, issue 5, No 2, 1529-1547

Abstract: Abstract There is growing evidence supporting the individual associations of maternal occupation and maternal education with children’s behavioral outcomes. However, few studies have linked these factors together in a mediation model. The current study is the first to examine the mediating effect of maternal occupational skillfulness on the relationship between the length of maternal education and preschool children’s behavioral outcomes in the Chinese context. To assess children’s behavior, parents and teachers of 286 preschoolers from the China Jintan Cohort Study completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Caregiver-Teacher Report Form (C-TRF), respectively. Sociodemographic information, such as maternal occupational skillfulness and education level, was also collected. Using PROCESS and kappa statistics, maternal occupational skillfulness was found to mediate the effect of length of maternal education on both internalizing and externalizing behaviors of preschoolers, as rated by parents but not on behaviors as rated by teachers. Such findings can provide insight for counseling psychologists or family therapists in providing mothers, particularly those in low-skill jobs, appropriate advice and strategies for handling job-related stress. Mother-child relationships would consequently improve, which could then minimize the development of children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Furthermore, teachers could identify at-risk children and provide early intervention. Our findings also offer insight for policy makers to consider legislation providing financial assistance from the government to low-income mothers. Future replication studies should be conducted in other countries so as to determine whether similar results can be obtained.

Keywords: Internalizing behavior; Externalizing behavior; Maternal occupational skillfulness; Maternal education; Preschool children (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12187-018-9580-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:chinre:v:12:y:2019:i:5:d:10.1007_s12187-018-9580-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... f-life/journal/12187

DOI: 10.1007/s12187-018-9580-1

Access Statistics for this article

Child Indicators Research is currently edited by Asher Ben-Arieh

More articles in Child Indicators Research from Springer, The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().