The Effects of Marital Relationship, Mother's Parenting Stress and Positive Parenting Behavior on the Behavioral Problems of Preschoolers

This study examined the effects of marital relationships, mother's parenting stress and positive parenting behavior on the behavioral problems of preschoolers. For this purpose, we created a structural equation model and examined the goodness of fit of the model using the RMSEA, SRMR, TLI, and CFI. The participants were 986 4-year-old preschoolers and their mothers taken from the 5th year of the Korea Children's Panel. The results of this study were as follows: First, a negative marital relationship had a significant negative effect on behavioral problems of preschoolers directly. And a negative marital relationship had a significant indirect effect on behavioral problems of preschoolers through the parenting behavior. Second, parenting stress had a significant negative effect on behavioral problems of preschoolers directly. And parenting stress had a significant indirect effect on behavioral problems of preschoolers through the parenting behavior. These findings imply that both improving marital relationships and regulating mothers' parenting stress and parenting behavior need to be emphasized when designing prevention and intervention programs aimed at improving the behavioral problems of preschoolers.