Preschoolers' Emotional and Behavioral Problems: Relationships With Mothers' Parenting Anxiety, Early Childcare Experiences, and Meal-Time Manners

Abstract

　　This study investigated the relationships among children's emotional and behavioral problems assessed on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), their early childcare experiences, their daily activities and mothers' parenting anxiety. One hundred and sixty-nine mothers of children aged 2-6 form two day care enters participated in this study. The results of logistic regression analyses identified as risk factors of children’s externalized and internalized behavior problems a higher level of mother's parenting anxiety and later start of daycare service. Children's bad meal-time manners were also a risk factor for internalized behavior problems. It was also shown that children who had started the daycare before their first birthday had better meal-time manners and lower scores on internalized and total behavior problems than those who had started the daycare after their first birthday. Based on these results, we suggest that children's emotional and behavior problems should be treated along with treatment of their mothers' parenting anxiety.