Parental co-parenting quality, children’s emotion regulation abilities, and prosocial behavior

Abstract Objective This study used latent profile analysis to explore latent profiles of parental coparenting quality and their relationships with children’s prosocial behavior, and to examine the mediating role of children’s emotion regulation abilities. Methods A sevenmonth longitudinal survey was...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Baocheng Pan, Youli Wang, Jinghui Zhang, Jingyao Wang, Bowen Xiao, Yan Li
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2025-07-01
Series:BMC Psychology
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-025-02947-y
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Summary:Abstract Objective This study used latent profile analysis to explore latent profiles of parental coparenting quality and their relationships with children’s prosocial behavior, and to examine the mediating role of children’s emotion regulation abilities. Methods A sevenmonth longitudinal survey was conducted with 496 father-mother-child triads (fathers: M age = 36.95, SD = 4.84; mothers: M age = 35.16, SD = 3.68; children: M age in months = 55.95, SD = 8.42). Results Three coparenting profiles were identified: lowquality, moderatequality, and highquality parental coparenting. Compared with the lowquality profile, both the moderatequality profiles and highquality profiles significantly predicted higher children’s prosocial behavior via enhanced emotion regulation and reduced emotion lability/negativity. Compared with the moderatequality profile, the highquality profile predicted children’s prosocial behavior only through reduced emotion lability/negativity. Conclusion These findings highlight the critical role of parental coparenting quality in shaping children’s emotion regulation abilities and prosocial behavior, demonstrating distinct pathways for different coparenting profiles. The results offer practical insights for fostering children’s prosocial development.
ISSN:2050-7283