Parental relationships and the social emotional and behavioral problem of children in China: insights for the three-child policy

As the three-child policy is implemented in China, a limited amount of research to date has considered how mothers’ and fathers’ relationships and conflicts with their children’s social–emotional development may differ based on the number of siblings of the latter. By using a large dataset (N = 24,343) collected in 2021, the authors of this study provide new insights into support for parenting and the policy for childcare in this context. Guided by the framework of a family system, we apply path analysis to analyze the proposed parental relation and child outcome model. The results suggest that when the covariance between paternal and maternal parenting behaviors is considered, each parent has independent effects on their child’s social emotional and behavioral problem. The perceived relationships and conflicts of both mothers and fathers were found to be significantly related to their children’s social emotional and behavioral problem, but the variables related to fathers had a weaker association than those related to mothers. The results also demonstrated that the number of siblings moderated the effects of the child–parent relationship on their children’s emotional and behavioral problem. A discussion of the results and their implications for future research in the area are provided.