The relationship between parental psychological flexibility and problem behaviors in primary school students: the mediating role of family functioning / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the relationship among the parental psychological flexibility, family functioning and pupils' problem behaviors, and to provide empirical evidence for improving pupils' problem behaviors.Methods:Parents of all pupils in two primary schools in Beijing were selected as subjects in a cluster and were asked to complete the parental psychological flexibility questionnaire(PPFQ), family assessment device(FAD) and Conners child behavior rating scale(CBRS). SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 24.0 were used to analyze the data by Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U test, t test and confirmatory factor analysis.The Bootstrap method was applied to test the mediating effect. Results:The detection rate of pupils' problem behaviors was 18.72%.All children were divided into normal group( n=825) and problem group( n=190) by comparison with the norm.The PPFQ total score and dimension score of normal group were higher than those of problem group((86.67±13.57) vs(77.18±14.40), (43.65±8.71) vs (37.98±9.68), (13.26±4.70) vs(12.07±4.72), (29.75±4.50) vs(27.13±5.66), all P<0.01)), while The FAD total score and dimension score of normal group were lower than those of problem group((120.01±15.31) vs(129.34±15.75), (11.69±2.02) vs(12.19±2.29), (17.64±3.09) vs(19.25±3.60), (23.01±3.21) vs(24.68±3.33), (12.44±2.26) vs(13.65±2.73), (14.28±2.49) vs(15.76±3.07), (19.04±2.54) vs(19.92±2.62), (21.91±4.12) vs(23.88±4.15), all P<0.01)). The PPFQ total score of normal group and problem group were negatively correlated with the total scores of FAD and CBRS respectively( r=-0.47, -0.42, r=-0.49, -0.38, all P<0.01). The FAD total score of normal group and problem group were positively correlated with the CBRS total score respectively( r=0.37, 0.28, all P<0.01). The test of structural equation model showed that the intermediary model of FAD in normal group fits well(χ 2/ df=2.45, RMSEA=0.04, GFI=0.97, NFI=0.97, IFI=0.98, TLI=0.97). The path coefficients of PPFQ to FAD, CBRS and FAD to CBRS were significant( β=-0.62, -0.48, 0.12, P<0.01). The problem group fad intermediary model fitting was not good, however, PPFQ had significant influence on the path coefficients of FAD and CBRS respectively( β=-0.70, -0.56, P<0.01). Bootstrap analysis showed that the mediating effect of FAD in the relationship between PPFQ and CBRS was significant in the normal group(95% CI -0.0854, -0.0408), accounted for 25.52% of the total effect.The mediating effect of FAD in the problem group was not significant. Conclusion:The parental psychological flexibility has a direct effect on family functioning and children's behavior in normal and problem children groups.Family functioning plays a part of mediating role between parental psychological flexibility and children's behavior in the normal group of children.