Exploring the relationship between parental psychological control and children’s social behavior: A moderated mediation model

This study investigates the relationship between parental psychological control and children’s social behavior, as well as the mediating role of parent-child conflict and the moderating effect of gender in 676 parents of young children in Shandong Province, China. The results show that (1) parental psychological control is negatively correlated with children’s prosocial behavior and positively correlated with children’s problem behavior; (2) parental psychological control significantly negatively predicts children’s prosocial behavior through parent-child conflict; and (3) parental psychological control can predict children’s problem behavior directly or positively through parent-child conflict. (4) The first half of the mediating effect of parental psychological control → parent-child conflict → children’s social behavior is moderated by gender. The moderating effect reaches a significant level in both boys and girls, and the effect is more prominent in girls than in boys.