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Psychological Distress, Parental Hostility, and Child Behavior Problems: The Gendered Moderating Role of Positive
Jingyi Wang1, Yiran Zhang2,3, Julianna R Calabrese4
1Division of Social Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, SAR, China.
Family Process
|December 23, 2025
Summary
Parental psychological distress impacts child behavior. Positive coparenting can buffer this, protecting children from hostility and behavioral issues, especially when mothers experience distress.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Family Studies
- Child Psychology
Background:
- Prenatal and early postnatal psychological distress in parents is linked to increased parental hostility.
- Parental hostility negatively affects children's behavioral development.
- The spillover effect of parental distress onto hostility and child outcomes requires further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine longitudinal associations between parental psychological distress and later parental hostility.
- To investigate the impact of parental hostility on children's behavior problems.
- To determine if positive coparenting mitigates the negative effects of parental distress on hostility.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study using data from the Building Strong Families project (1998 families).
- Mothers and fathers reported psychological distress and positive coparenting.
- Parental hostility was observed, and mothers reported children's behavior problems at 36 months.
Main Results:
- Low positive coparenting amplified the link between a mother's distress and father's hostility, and father's distress and mother's hostility.
- High positive coparenting weakened these distress-hostility associations.
- Both maternal and paternal hostility correlated with children's internalizing problems; paternal hostility also linked to externalizing problems.
Conclusions:
- Positive coparenting acts as a protective factor, buffering parental psychological distress from escalating into hostility.
- Interventions strengthening coparenting may reduce child behavior problems, particularly by mitigating paternal hostility when mothers experience distress.
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