From family emotions to child competence: unpacking parenting stress's dual role as mediator and moderator in rural China.

Introduction: Social-emotional competence (SEC) refers to children's ability to regulate emotions, build positive peer relationships, and engage in effective social interactions, which serves as a core foundation for school readiness and later development. Since SEC has been recognized as a critical component of future talent development, numerous studies have examined the relationship between family emotional expression, parenting behaviors, parent-child interactions, and the development of young children's SEC. Drawing on the theory of mentalizing, this study aims to construct and validate a moderated chain mediation model to investigate the impact of family emotional expression on children's SEC, with a particular focus on the moderating role of parenting stress. Method: A total of 522 families and their children from three rural counties in western China participated in this study. The children's SEC was assessed using the Bayley-III scale, while parents completed the Family Emotional Expression Questionnaire, Parent Impulsivity Questionnaire, Parent Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire, and Parenting Stress Scale. In order to analyze the mediating and moderating effects, SPSS 27.0 and Process were used for statistical processing. Result: Emotional valence shaped SEC outcomes divergently, with parental impulsivity and acceptance-rejection behaviors sequentially mediating this relationship, particularly in un-left-behind children. Parenting stress mitigated negative emotions' effects on impulsivity while moderating mediation strength. Left-behind families exhibited cultural adaptation through suppressed negative emotional expression, contrasting with un-left-behind dynamics. Conclusion: These findings underscore the critical role of fostering a positive family emotional climate in promoting children's SEC development. From the perspective of ecosystem theory, parents should provide a good family environment for preschool children, so as to improve their emotional awareness and emotional expression, and ultimately improve their socio-emotional ability.