Parental stress and children's emotion regulation

Liew, Ying Ping (2025) Parental stress and children's emotion regulation. Final Year Project, UTAR.

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Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between parental stress and preschool children’s emotional development, focusing on two key aspects: emotional regulation and emotional negativity. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory, it examines how stress within the multilayer of systems influence children’s ability to manage emotions. Although there is a raise of concern on parental stress, limited attention has been given to the parents of preschool children. Existing research largely examines parents of children with special educational needs, leaving a gap in understanding the stress faced by parents of typically developing children. A quantitative, correlational design was adopted by collecting data from 60 parents of children aged 4–6 years in Klang Valley, Malaysia, using convenience sampling. The Parenting Stress Scale (Berry & Jones, 1995) and Emotion Regulation Checklist (Shields & Cicchetti, 1997) were utilized to assess parental stress and children’s emotional regulation. Findings revealed a significant negative correlation between parental stress and children’s emotional regulation (r = –.656, p < .001), and a strong positive correlation between parental stress and emotional negativity (r = .797, p < .001). This suggests that higher parental stress links with weaker emotional regulation and greater negative emotional expression in children. The discussion highlights the possibility of a bidirectional relationship: parental stress undermines caregiving, while children’s poor emotional control may increase stress. The findings underscore the need for more effective parental support programs, stress management resources, and collaborative efforts between families, childcare providers and communities as improving parental well-being may foster healthier emotional regulation and reduce emotional negativity in children. Keywords: Parental stress, children, emotional regulation, emotional negativity

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