Does Parental Media Soothing Lead to the Risk of Callous–Unemotional Behaviors in Early Childhood? Testing a Moderated Mediation Model

Callous-unemotional (CU) behaviors are a significant marker of early socioemotional disorders. This study investigated the role of parental media soothing as a potential risk factor for CU behaviors in young children and the indirect effects of children's emotion regulation competence and effortful control. Data were collected from 1095 Chinese parents of young children (M_age(mouths) = 60.56, SD = 9.52) using the Media Emotion Regulation Scale, the Emotion Regulation Scale, the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits, and the Effortful Control Scale. Moderated mediation analysis was employed to examine whether parental media soothing indirectly impacts CU behaviors by decreasing emotion regulation and whether this indirect effect was influenced by children's effortful control. The results were consistent with the moderated mediation model, indicating that media soothing significantly correlates with higher levels of CU behaviors through lower levels of emotion regulation. Furthermore, the indirect effect could be influenced by the level of effortful control. The findings highlighted the new familial ecological risk factors associated with early CU behaviors and provided direction for future research on the association between Chinese parental media practices and poor socioemotional outcomes in early childhood.