This study aimed to investigate mothers’ parenting stress and explore its relationship with associated demographic variables in two-child families involving preschool children. A sample of 621 two-child families and a comparison group of 319 one-child families from China participated in the study; the children were aged between 3 and 7. The results showed that (1) mothers of two-child families had higher parenting stress than those of one-child families; (2) within the two-child families, demographic variables, such as birth order, gender combination, and the age gap were found to have significant effects on maternal stress levels; and (3) in two-child families, families with an income of less than 3000 yuan had significantly higher maternal stress than families with an income of more than 6000 yuan.
This study aimed to examine first-born children's sibling jealousy and explore the relationships among first-born children's sibling jealousy, temperament, and emotion regulation in China during COVID-19 pandemic. The research hypotheses of this study are empirically examined through online and offline surveys. A sample of 304 two-child families from China participated in the study; the first-born children were aged between 1.17 and 7 years. The results indicated the following: (1) the older the first-born children and the greater the age difference between siblings, the lower the sibling jealousy. (2) Difficult temperament of first-born children could predict sibling jealousy significantly and positively, and emotion regulation could predict sibling jealousy negatively. (3) There was a partially mediating effect of emotion regulation between temperament and sibling jealousy. Compared with intermediate temperament, first-born children with difficult temperament had weaker emotion regulation and higher sibling jealousy. Overall, findings have important implications for psychological interventions for families of first-born children with difficult temperament.
We investigated sibling relationships, temperament, and social competence and behavior of first-born and second-born children in China. A total of 212 Chinese children (M = 4.52, SD = .88) completed Sibling Relationships Scale, Temperament Scale, and Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation Scale. The results indicated that (1) for the first-born children, temperament subscales were positively related to their social competence and behavior, but had nothing to do with their sibling relationships, and children's sibling relationships were not significantly associated with their social competence and behavior; (2) for the second-born children, there was a fully mediating effect of implicit behavioral problems and explicit behavioral problems between emotionality of temperament and sibling warmth. The implications of the study were discussed.Keywords First-born preschool children . Second-born preschool children . Sibling relationships . Temperament . Social competence and behavior
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