The Association Between Child Emotion Regulation, Child Mental Health Status, and Parental Competence in School-Aged Children in Bangkok, Thailand
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Abstract
Objective: This study aimed to examine the relationship between child emotion regulation, child mental health status, and parental competence in non-clinical 8 to 12-year-old children in a school in Bangkok, Thailand.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in a demonstrative school in Bangkok from March to May 2023 using an anonymous survey. Measurements consisted of demographic data, ERQ-CA/HIF for child emotion regulation, self-rated and parent-rated SDQ for child mental health status, and PSOC for parental competence. All available children aged 8 - 12 years and their primary caregivers were included, then children with neurodevelopmental disorder(s) and academic disadvantages were excluded. Parents with major psychiatric disorder(s) were also excluded. Informed consent was given, and ethical approval was granted. The relationship between factors was analyzed using Pearson's correlation. Dependent T-test, independent T-test, and one-way ANOVA were used to compare groups with different demographics.
Results: A total of 306 child-parent dyads were eligible for the study. The mean age of the children and the parents were 9.8 and 44.9 years respectively. Most of the participants had high household income and high parental education. No association between child emotion regulation and parental competence was found. However, there were weak to moderate negative associations between child emotion regulation and all psychological symptoms (r = -.19 to -.31); negative emotions and parental competence (r = -.16 to -.19); and parental competence and parent-rated psychological symptoms (r = -.12 to -.29). Weak to moderate positive associations between child emotion regulation and prosocial behaviors (r = .12 to .24) were also found, whereas negative emotions were moderately associated with emotional problems (r = .62), and weakly with all other psychological symptoms (r = .23 to .30).
Conclusion: This study found that emotion regulation is positively associated with prosocial behavior and negatively associated with mental health problems, while parental competence is associated with child's mental health outcomes, particularly prosocial behaviors and attention problems. However, no association between child emotion regulation and parental competence was found which raised an urgent question of whether parents realize their important role in coaching their child's emotion regulation. There were several limitations. More research is needed to better understand the relationship between emotion regulation, mental health, and perceived parental competence in Thai culture, with improvements for the future as suggested.
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