Birth order Effect on Social-emotional Competence in Young Children:Mediating Effect of Mothers'Parenting Sense of Competence
Objective This study was aimed to investigate the development and formation mechanism of the birth order effect of social-emotional competence in 3-5-year-old children,and verify the mediating effect of mothers'parenting sense of competence on the association between birth order and social-emotional competence.Methods A total of 1132 children aged 3-5 years old in Zhejiang Province were selected by convenient sampling method,among them,228 children in two-child families were matched with only children of the same kindergarten,month age,gen-der,and family socioeconomic status.The Age and Stages Questionnaire:Social Emotions(ASQ:SE-2)and the Chi-nese version of the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale(C-PSOC)reported by mothers were utilized to assess the children's social-emotional competence and mothers'parenting sense of competence respectively.Results The re-sults revealed a significant birth order effect on the social-emotional competence of 3-5-year-old children,and the social-emotional competence of young children was higher than that of only children.Moreover,mothers'parenting sense of competence mediated the relationship between birth order and social-emotional competence in 3-year-old;however,this mediation mechanism was not observed in 4-year-old or 5-year-old.Conclusion These find-ings suggested that birth order is associated with social-emotional competence among 3-5-year-old children,while the mediating effect of mother's parenting sense of competence was only found in 3-year-old children.
developmental psgchologyfertility engineeringbirth ordersocial-emotional competenceparental sense of competencepreschool children
万方数据
维普
