COVID-19 karantina sürecinde çocukların duygusal durumları: Ebeveynlik stresi ve çocuğun mizacının katkısı

Children's emotional regulation and dysregulation emerge through the interaction between the child's individual (temperament) and the environmental (e.g., parenting stress) characteristics. The aim of the current study was to investigate the contributions of child temperament and parenting stress to children's emotional states during the COVID-19 outbreak. This study also examined the moderating role of parenting stress on the association between child temperament and children's emotional states. Participants were mothers of 219 (110 girls) Turkish preschool children whose ages ranged from 36 months to 76 months (M = 56.95 months, SD = 11.736 months). Mothers reported on children's emotional states (emotion regulation, emotion dysregulation, child aggression, and child anxiety), child temperament (persistence and reactivity), and parenting stress. Bivariate correlations and hierarchical regression models were run to test the hypotheses. Results indicated that persistence was negatively associated with emotion dysregulation and child aggression, whereas reactivity was negatively associated with emotion regulation and positively associated with emotion dysregulation, aggression, and anxiety. Besides, parenting stress was negatively associated with emotion regulation and positively associated with emotion dysregulation, aggression, and anxiety. Results from the hierarchical regression analyses revealed that parenting stress moderated the association between persistence, and emotion regulation, and child aggression. Simple slopes analyses showed that combinations of high persistence and low parenting stress increased emotion regulation, while combinations of low persistence and high parenting stress increased child aggression. The findings underline the significance of both child temperament and parenting stress for children's emotional states. In the light of previous studies, findings were discussed in the current study, considering limitations, future directions, and implications. Keywords: Temperament, Parenting Stress, Emotion Regulation, Emotion Dysregulation, COVID-19