The Mediating Role of Parental Interest in School in the Relationship Between Self‐Regulation and Emotion Regulation

ABSTRACT This study was conducted to examine the relationship between parental interest levels and children's psychological well‐being and emotion regulation skills in 5–6‐years‐old (60–72 months) children. Structural equation modeling, a quantitative research method, was employed. A convenience sampling method was used to determine the study group. The study group consisted of 60–72‐months‐old children and their parents attending private and public schools in Sivas city center. Child participants were reached through individual interviews at their schools, while parents were reached through online forms. The study group consisted of a total of 441 individuals: 147 children aged 5–6, 147 mothers of these children, and 147 fathers of these children. The Parental Interest Towards Children Scale, the Psychological Well‐Being Scale for 5–6 Year Old Children, and the Preschool Emotion Regulation Scale were used as data collection tools. Data analysis processes were conducted in the R program. CTT, lavaan, dplyr, psych, semPlot, and foreign packages were used in performing the analyses. According to the research results, although the Self‐Regulation sub‐dimension of the Psychological Well‐Being Scale did not have a direct effect on the level of Emotion Regulation Skills, it was observed to have an indirect effect through the mediating variables of the Mother's and Father's Interest Towards School.