Maternal Mental Health Literacy and Preschoolers’ Emotional Regulation Ability: A Chain Mediation of Depression and Democratic Parenting

Background: Maternal mental health literacy is a cognitive resource that may support preschoolers’ emotional development, yet its influence on emotional regulation and the related mechanisms remains unclear. This study examined whether maternal depressive mood and democratic parenting form a chain pathway linking maternal mental health literacy to preschoolers’ emotional regulation ability. Methods: Mothers of 544 preschoolers in mainland China completed an online questionnaire that assessed maternal mental health literacy, depressive mood, democratic parenting, and child emotional regulation. Structural path analysis was conducted with child age and gender controlled. Indirect effects were tested using 5000 bootstrap samples. Results: Maternal mental health literacy did not directly predict preschoolers’ emotional regulation. Three indirect effects were significant. The pathway through depressive mood had an effect of 0.005, the pathway through democratic parenting had an effect of 0.004, and the chain pathway through depressive mood and democratic parenting had an effect of 0.002. All confidence intervals excluded 0. Conclusion: Maternal mental health literacy influences preschoolers’ emotional regulation only through maternal depressive mood and democratic parenting, indicating that cognitive resources affect child emotional outcomes through emotional and behavioral processes rather than a direct pathway.