The Impact of Family Socioeconomic Status on Preschoolers’ Anxiety: The Serial Mediation Effects of Parenting Style and Psychological Resilience in Preschoolers

TL;DR

This study explores how family socioeconomic status affects preschoolers' anxiety through parenting styles and children's psychological resilience.

Contribution

The study identifies parenting style and psychological resilience as serial mediators linking family socioeconomic status to preschooler anxiety.

Findings

Family socioeconomic status is negatively associated with preschoolers' anxiety.

Authoritative parenting reduces anxiety, while authoritarian parenting increases it.

Psychological resilience mediates the relationship between socioeconomic status and anxiety.

Abstract

Anxiety is a common negative emotional experience among preschoolers that can significantly affect their physical and mental health development. Investigating the key factors that influence preschoolers’ anxiety and the mechanisms by which they act is important. This study aimed to examine the relationship between family socioeconomic status and preschoolers’ anxiety and explore the mediating role of parenting style and preschoolers’ psychological resilience in this relationship. This study examined the relationship between family socioeconomic status and childhood anxiety from the perspective of family factors and personal psychological characteristics. The Family Background Questionnaire, the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire, the DECA-P2, and the Preschool Anxiety Scale were distributed to 36,048 parent–child dyads (children aged 3–6 years) in China. The collected data were analyzed via SPSS 22.0 and Mplus 8.3. A set of serial mediation models was constructed to provide evidence supporting the role of the key factors of early childhood anxiety and their observed associations. There were two-way correlations between family socioeconomic status (SES), parenting style, psychological resilience, and anxiety level. SES demonstrated a significant negative association with preschoolers’ anxiety, with direct and indirect links between authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles and preschoolers’ psychological resilience. Specifically, SES was associated with lower anxiety in preschoolers through authoritative parenting styles and was linked to higher anxiety through authoritarian parenting styles. SES was also related to preschoolers’ anxiety through their psychological resilience. In summary, parenting style and children’s psychological resilience function as serial mediators in the relationship between SES and preschoolers’ anxiety. Family socioeconomic status significantly and negatively correlates with early childhood anxiety, and parenting style and preschoolers’ psychological resilience mediate this relationship, in this study conducted from the perspectives of both family factors and individual psychological traits of preschoolers.

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