Grandparents’ Parenting on Children’s Internalizing Symptoms: The Serial Mediation of Parents’ Psychological Control and Children’s Emotion Regulation

Abstract

The current study aimed to investigate the intergenerational transmission of parenting and internalizing problems in children. Serial mediation models were used to assess parental psychological control and child emotion regulation as mediators in linking grandparents’ parenting (care or overprotection) and children’s internalizing problems. The sample consisted of 150 Chinese children ( Mage = 8.54, SD = 1.67) and their parents. The parents reported the grandparents’ parenting and children’s internalizing problems, and the children reported on their emotion regulation. Both the children’s ratings and behavioral observations were used to assess the parents’ psychological control. The results showed that grandmothers’ parenting was significantly associated with children’s internalizing problems, and this relationship was mediated by perceived (but not observed) parental psychological control and children’s emotion regulation. These results highlighted the differential role of children’s perceptions of parental control and the observed parental psychological control on internalizing symptoms in children.