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- Title
Parents' Psychological Well-being and Story Reading: A Six Year Cross-Lagged Analysis.
- Authors
Chen, Eva Yi-Ju; Tung, Eli Yi-Liang
- Abstract
Research has documented significant influences of parental psychological well-being on parenting. Yet, few studies have examined multiple measures of psychological well-being simultaneously to understand the underlying pathways and mediation factors. The present study employed new parents, without chronically high depressive symptoms, to examine across-time associations between the frequency of story reading and multiple measures of parental psychological well-being, namely the depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and global sense of personal control, in the first six years after becoming parents. Cross-lagged panel models with three time intervals were constructed to examine the across-time associations with 177 new parents. Significant direct and indirect effects between parental psychological well-being and story reading in the first six years after childbirth were identified. In the first three years after childbirth, new parents with more depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem tended to engage in more frequent story reading. New parents' global sense of personal control, when the child was one to three years old, had a direct positive effect on story reading two to three years later. Through the mediation of self-esteem, parents with low psychological well-being after childbirth tended to engage in more frequent story reading when the child was three to six years old. Furthermore, the indirect effects of story reading on parental well-being were mediated by self-esteem and global sense of personal control. Findings from the present study underscored the importance of considering multiple measures of psychological well-being in understanding the bidirectional interactions between new parents' well-being and early story reading in early family context. Highlights: Significant cross-lagged effects between new parents' psychological well-being and their frequency of story reading in the first six years after childbirth were identified. New parents with lower self-esteem and higher depressive symptoms in the first year after childbirth were associated with more frequent story reading when the child was three to six years old. In the first six years of parenthood, new parents who read stories to their children more often in the first year tended to have lower psychological well-being when the child was three to six years old. Findings were discussed in relation to the potential influences of social contexts, such as the perceived support and the perceived expectations of parental role, on shaping parental well-being and early parenting.
- Subjects
PARENTHOOD &; psychology; PARENT attitudes; WELL-being; CHILDBIRTH; PSYCHOLOGY of parents; SELF-perception; TIME; MENTAL depression; STORYTELLING; READING; CONTROL (Psychology)
- Publication
Journal of Child & Family Studies, 2023, Vol 32, Issue 5, p1382
- ISSN
1062-1024
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s10826-022-02272-7