Centre for Research in Child Development (CRCD) Researchers Co-publish Paper With External Collaborators
Centre for Research in Child Development (CRCD) researchers and healthcare practitioners from various institutes and hospitals published in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics on Maternal Anxiety, Parenting Stress, and Preschoolers' Behavior Problems: The Role of Child Self-Regulation.
The paper is co-written by:
- Dr Stella Tsotsi (Research Scientist, Centre for Research in Child Development, Office of Education Research, NIE, Nanyang Technological University),
- Dr Birit Broekman (Medical Specialist, Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam University Medical Centre, The Netherlands),
- Ms Sim Lit Wee (Research Associate, Centre for Research in Child Development of Office of Education Research, NIE, NTU),
- Professor Lynette Shek (Principal Investigator, Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science and Technology (A*STAR) and Senior Consultant Division of Paediatric Allergy, Immunology & Rheumatology, Department of Paediatrics, Khoo Teck Puat - National University Children's Medical Institute, National University Hospital),
- Professor Tan Kok Hian (Senior Associate Dean of Academic Medicine, Duke-NUS Medical School) Professor Chong Yap Seng (Senior Consultant, Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, National University Hospital)
- Dr Qiu Anqi (Associate Professor, Deputy Head (Research & Enterprises), Department of Biomedical Engineering, NUS),
- Dr Helen Chen Yu (Adj Assoc Professor, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Kandang Kerbau Women and Children's Hospital),
- Professor Michael Meaney (Scientific Director of the Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics and Mental Health and James McGill Professor Medicine at McGill University, and Director of the Integrative Neuroscience Program and Adjunct Senior Investigator at the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (A*STAR))
- Dr Anne Rifkin-Graboi (Senior Research Scientist, Centre for Research in Child Development, Office of Education Research, NIE, Nanyang Technological University)
The researchers explored whether parenting stress mediates the relation between maternal trait anxiety and child externalizing and internalizing problems. Secondly, whether child factors such as self-regulation modify the influence of maternal well-being on child externalizing and internalizing problems at 4 years of age.
It was shown that parenting stress mediated the relation between maternal trait anxiety and child externalizing and internalizing problems. This mediating effect was further moderated by child self-regulation. The indirect effect of maternal trait anxiety through parenting stress on child externalizing problems was also stronger among children with low self-regulation.
These results suggest that interventions that include decreasing parenting stress and enhancing child self-regulation may be important to limiting the transgenerational impact of maternal trait anxiety.
