Grandparental involvement and preschoolers’ externalizing problem behaviors: the mediating roles of family functioning and emotion regulation

Grandparents represent an important component of child-rearing practices in many contemporary Chinese families. However, limited research has investigated how grandparent involvement is associated with externalizing problem behaviors in preschoolers within three-generation households (where a child lives with both parents and one or more grandparents). This study investigates the relationships among grandparental involvement, family functioning, preschoolers’ emotion regulation, and externalizing problem behaviors. Data were collected from 802 preschoolers aged 3 to 6 years residing in three-generation households through questionnaires, including measures of grandparental involvement, family functioning, emotion regulation, and externalizing problem behaviors. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS, including correlation analysis, regression analysis, and path analysis with the bootstrap method (5,000 iterations) to examine the mediation hypothesis. Family functioning and preschoolers’ emotion regulation significantly mediated the relationship between grandparental involvement and preschoolers’ externalizing problem behaviors, with a chain mediating effect size of 5.78% and a total mediating effect size of 48.35%. Family functioning and preschoolers’ emotion regulation function as two significant mediators in the association between grandparental involvement and preschoolers’ externalizing problem behaviors. It is recommended that interventions targeting preschoolers’ externalizing problem behaviors in Chinese three-generation families be implemented to promote positive grandparental involvement, enhance family functioning, and strengthen preschoolers’ emotion regulation abilities.