Effects of a parent training programme for the treatment of young children with separation anxiety disorder

Effects of Maternal Overprotection on Social Competence in Young Children: The Mediating Role of Young Children’s Anxiety

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the direct and indirect effects of maternal overprotection on the development of young children’s social competence through their anxiety. In this study, maternal overprotection was defined as anxiously shielding their young children from having negative experiences and maintaining developmentally inappropriate intrusive and permissive parenting for their children.Methods: Participants were 183 mothers and 18 teachers with young children aged from four to six years. Mothers rated themselves on the degree of their overprotecting behaviors measured by a maternal overprotection scale for young children (Y. S. Chung & Park, 2021). Teachers rated young children’s anxiety and social competence. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and a structural equation model. Bootstrapping method was applied to examine the significance of the mediating effects.Results: First, there were significant correlations between maternal overprotection, young children’s anxiety and social competence. Second, structural equation modeling supported the hypothesized relations among maternal overprotection, young children’s anxiety and social competence after controlling with young children’s gender, maternal academic background, and monthly household income. And the level of young children’s anxiety mediated the relationship between overprotective parenting and young children’s social competence.Conclusion: This study showed that mother’s overprotective parenting was associated with varying levels of young children’s anxiety and social competence. Additionally the maternal overprotection linked with children’s social competence indirectly through their anxiety. These findings offer basic knowledge applicable to parent education and the for the development of program for improving parenting behaviors. The limitations and other implications of this study are also discussed.

eMental Health Literacy and Knowledge of Common Child Mental Health Disorders among Parents of Preschoolers

The purpose of the study was to assess the eMental health literacy of parents of preschool children and explore the relationships between their eMental health literacy skills and their knowledge of common child mental health disorders and their child difficulties. Online survey data were collected using Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Parents of preschool children completed questionnaires related to internet-based mental health information seeking behavior, knowledge of common child mental health disorders using case vignettes, and child difficulties. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistical methods. eMental health literacy of parents was high but knowledge of the child mental health disorders was low. Only 14% of parents correctly identified all three disorders; 41.1% identified attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), 64.9% recognized autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and 19.1% identified separation anxiety disorder (SAD). Parents with high eMental health literacy (≥30) were more likely to endorse professional help and seek information on how to manage problem behaviors for all three disorders. Parents with low eMental health literacy (<30) were more likely to have a child with a high risk of a mental health disorder. The findings will be used to inform educational initiatives on the use of online resources and recognition of child mental health disorders to promote early intervention and appropriate help seeking.