The influence of parent-child cohesion of primary and middle school students on externalizing problem behaviors: chain mediating effect of security and self-control / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the effect sense of security and self-control on parent-child cohesion and externalizing problem behaviors in primary and middle school students.Methods:A total of 1 402 primary and middle school students were investigated with the problem behavior frequency scale(PBFS), family adaptability and cohesion scale(FACES-CV), security questionnaire(SQ) and brief self-control scale(BSCS). SPSS 25.0 and PROCESS v2.16 were used for statistical analysis, and common method deviation test, Pearson correlation analysis and intermediary effect analysis were used in the analysis.Results:Parent-child cohesion of primary and middle school students was positively correlated with security and self-control ( r=0.279, 0.303, both P<0.01), which was negatively correlated with externalizing problem behaviors ( r=-0.154, P<0.01). Security was positively correlated with self-control ( r=0.567, P<0.01). Security, self-control and externalizing problem behaviors were negatively correlated ( r=-0.147, -0.250, both P<0.01). The security and self-control of primary and middle school students played a partial mediating role between parent-child cohesion and externalizing problem behaviors.The mediating effect consisted of two paths: one was parent-child cohesion-self-control-externalizing problem behaviors, the other was parent-child cohesion-security-self-control-externalizing problem behaviors. The effect values of these two paths accounted for 20.52% and 20.26% of the total effect respectively. Conclusion:Parent-child cohesion not only directly affects the externalizing problem behaviors of primary and middle school students, but also indirectly affects the externalizing problem behavior through the independent mediating effect of self-control and the chain mediation of security-self-control.