This study investigated the moderated mediating effect of executive function and parental attitudes on the relationship between children's effortful control and prosocial behavior in early school-age children. For this purpose, an online survey was co...
This study investigated the moderated mediating effect of executive function and parental attitudes on the relationship between children's effortful control and prosocial behavior in early school-age children. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted with 300 parents of first and second graders across the country, measuring their children's effortful control, prosocial behavior, executive function, and parental attitudes. The collected data were analyzed using the PROCESS Macro to test the moderated mediation model. The results showed that, first, there were significant correlations among effortful control, prosocial behavior, executive function, and parental attitudes. Second, executive function was found to partially mediate the relationship between effortful control and prosocial behavior. Third, the autonomy and relatedness dimensions of parental attitudes had significant moderating effects on the relationship between effortful control and executive function, while the competence dimension did not. Finally, a significant moderated mediation was found in the relationship between effortful control and prosocial behavior, such that the indirect effect through executive function varied depending on the autonomy and relatedness dimensions of parental attitudes, but not the competence dimension. This study confirms that children's effortful control, executive function, and parental attitudes are important variables that can promote prosocial behavior in early elementary school children. Based on these findings, the study discusses the implications and limitations of the research and provides suggestions for future studies.
Key words: Effortful Control, prosocial behavior, executive function, parenting attitude, early school-age children