From parental control to child control: The role of stress and psychological well-being in parents

ABSTRACT Inhibitory control, an important aspect of self-regulation, refers to the ability to suppress a dominant response and plays an important role in children's social-emotional, cognitive and academic development. Research shows that it significantly improves during preschool, and parenting behaviors influence its development. A significant aspect of parenting is parental control. Parental control behaviors can be classified as negative parental control, including coercion, intrusiveness, and power assertion, and positive parental control, including guidance, autonomy support, and encouragement. However, research which examines parental negative and positive control in the same study linked with inhibitory control during preschool is scarce. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to show the relationship between negative and positive parental control, and child inhibitory control in an understudied sample that has both individualistic and collectivistic features. Moreover, parenting stress can influence child inhibitory control, either directly or indirectly through parental negative and positive parental control. Hence, these indirect relations may be dependent on parental psychological well-being. To examine these associations, the data were collected from 384 preschool-aged children (M= 58.7 months; SD=8.58; min-max=36-72 months; 192 boys) and their mothers. Parental control was measured observationally with 15-minute mother-child free play sessions, child inhibitory control was measured by a behavioral measure, and mother questionnaires were used for parenting stress and wellbeing. Results showed that while there was a negative relation between negative parental control and child inhibitory control, no significant association between positive control and inhibitory control was found. However, moderated mediation analysis indicated that parenting stress was linked to inhibitory control through negative control only for mothers with lower levels of psychological well-being, as well as the direct relation between parenting stress and inhibitory control. These associations could not be found for positive control. The findings extended the literature by distinguishing positive and negative control as well as their separate influences and showing the moderating effect of psychological well-being on the relation between parenting stress and child inhibitory control via negative parental control. Keywords: inhibitory control, self-regulation, negative parental control, positive parental control, parenting stress, parental psychological wellbeing