Parenting Stress and Social-Emotional Development of Boys and Girls in Early Childhood

Abstract

In case of problems in the social-emotional development, children can benefit from early intervention. However, still little research has been done on the social-emotional problems of young children and the factors that contribute to it. The present study therefore examines the relationship between parenting stress and social-emotional development of boys and girls in early childhood. Data from previous quantitative research is used. These data were collected using questionnaires. In the present study the sample consists of 387 families with children between 1 and 5,5 years. A weak positive correlation has been found between parenting stress and internalizing (e.g. fear and low self-esteem) and externalizing (e.g. attention problems and aggression) behaviour of children. Parenting stress would also have a medium effect on internalizing behaviour and a large effect on externalizing behaviour. This relation would not be moderated by gender of the child. It is important to further investigate this connection, for example with longitudinal research, to prevent any problems in the further development of children.