The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of marital conflict and mother's depression, mediated by children's emotional regulation, on children's anxiety. Subjects of this study consisted of 264 mothers who have 3 to 5-year-old young ch...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of marital conflict and mother's depression, mediated by children's emotional regulation, on children's anxiety. Subjects of this study consisted of 264 mothers who have 3 to 5-year-old young children attended two kindergartens and three nursery schools located in Chungbuk province. The pilot study was used to examine the applicability of survey instrument. Data were analyzed by frequency, percentage, Cronbach α, t-test, F-test, Tukey post-hoc test, and Pearson's correlation using SPSSWIN 12.0 program. Also the factor analysis was used for the validity of variables. Path model was analyzed by using AMOS 7.0 program. The theoretical model proposed was supported by the data and fitted adequately.
The results of this study were as follows:
First, there were statistically differences in mother's depression, marital conflicts, children's emotional regulation and anxiety according to general background. The first born children had higher anxiety than the other. Children's anxiety and mother's marital conflict was likely to show higher when mothers were currently employed. Also, mother's marital conflict and depression, and children's anxiety were greater when monthly family income was below 3,000,000 won. Girls were likely to show more emotional regulation than boys.
Second, for both of boys and girls, marital conflict had a direct effect on mother's depression and indirect effect on children's emotional regulation and anxiety mediated by mother's depression. Also, it was shown that mother’s depression had greater direct effect on children's emotional regulation and indirect effect on children's anxiety mediated by children's emotional regulation while children's emotional regulation had a direct influence on children's anxiety.
Third, the effects of marital conflict, mother's depression and children's emotional regulation on a children’s anxiety indicated the same path for both genders, but there was a noticeable difference in the power of influence. In particular, the effect of mother’s depression on boys' anxiety was significantly higher than girls while the effect of emotional regulation on girls' anxiety was higher than boys.