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Updated: Jul 16, 2026

Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
Maternal empathy, self-confidence, and stress as antecedents of preschool children's behavior problems
Lorraine O Walker1, Ching-Yu Cheng
1School of Nursing, The University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA. lwalker@mail.nur.utexas.edu
Purpose:
To test psychosocial antecedents (maternal stress, self-confidence, and empathy) of preschoolers' behavior problems.
Design And Methods:
One hundred and twenty-two postpartum mothers completed a 24-month longitudinal mail survey. A structural equation model that included empathy was tested.
Results:
Stress, but not maternal self-confidence or empathy, was directly related to child behavior problems (t=1.98, p=.05). Maternal empathy in combination with self-confidence or stress, however, moderated adverse effects on behavior problems (p=.03). Predictors explained 16% of variance of behavior problems.
Practice Implications:
Empathy was protective when stress was high. Empathy training may enhance high-risk parent education.
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