Parental gender attitudes and children's mental health: Evidence from the UK household longitudinal study
Parental gender attitudes and children's mental health: Evidence from the UK household longitudinal study
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DOI：
10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116632
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发表时间：
2024-02-04
影响因子：
5.4
通讯作者：
Murray，Aja
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Aguirre，Edith;Benzeval，Michaela;Murray，Aja
性别角色态度被发现与成年人和青少年的心理健康有关，但关于父母的性别态度是否与孩子的心理健康有关的信息却知之甚少。我们利用英国家庭纵向研究(UKHLS)的数据，通过长处和困难问卷(SDQ)的总分和五个部分，检验了父母的性别角色态度与儿童心理健康结果之间的联系。我们构建了结构方程模型，分别针对母亲和父亲以及5岁和8岁的孩子，并根据关键的社会人口统计变量进行调整。我们发现，5岁的孩子表现出较少的情感和同伴关系问题，当他们的母亲具有更平等主义(与传统主义相比)的性别角色态度时，他们更亲社会。我们还发现，孩子在8岁时更亲社会，因为他们的母亲有更平等的性别角色态度。母亲教养方式的中介效应在统计学上不显著。父亲更平等的性别角色态度与5岁时更多的多动症和8岁时更多的亲社会行为有关。此外，在大多数SDQ量表中，参与不那么消极的育儿行为完全中介了父亲更平等的性别态度与孩子心理健康的关联。这表明，父母的性别态度可能是预防儿童心理健康困难的目标；然而，未来需要进行研究，以检查我们确定的关联反映因果关系的程度。
Gender role attitudes have been found to be associated with the mental health of adults and adolescents, but little is known about whether parents’ gender attitudes are associated with their children’s mental health. Using data from Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), a large-population representative sample, we examine the links between parental gender role attitudes and child mental health outcomes as measured by the total and five components of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ). We construct structural equation models, separately for mothers and for fathers and for children aged 5 and 8, and adjust for key sociodemographic variables. We find that children aged 5 years exhibit fewer emotional and peer relationship problems and are more prosocial when their mothers have more egalitarian (compared to traditionalist) gender role attitudes. We also find that children are more prosocial at age 8 when their mothers have more egalitarian gender role attitudes. No statistically significant mediation effect is observed via maternal parenting behaviour. Fathers’ more egalitarian gender role attitudes were associated with higher hyperactivity at age 5 and more prosocial behaviour at age 8. Further, engaging in less negative parenting behaviour completely mediates the association of fathers’ more egalitarian gender attitudes with children’s mental health across the majority of the SDQ scales. This suggests that parental gender attitudes may be a possible target for the prevention of mental health difficulties among children; however, future research will be required to examine the extent to which the associations we identified reflect causality.