Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To examine the effect of the quality of the parent-child relationship on preschoolers' social skills and the cross-time chain mediating roles of executive function and emotion regulation. METHODS: Using stratified random sampling, 518 preschoolers aged 3-5 years in Nanjing were followed for one year in a two-wave longitudinal design. Questionnaires were used to assess the quality of the parent-child relationship, executive function, emotion regulation, and social skills. RESULTS: Pairwise correlations among the quality of the parent-child relationship (Time 1, T1), executive function (T1), emotion regulation (Time 2, T2), and social skills (at T1 and T2) were all significant (P<0.001). The quality of the parent-child relationship (T1) predicted preschoolers' social skills (T2) through the independent mediating effect of emotion regulation (T2), which accounted for 56.25% of the total indirect effect, and through the cross-time chain mediating effect of executive function (T1) and emotion regulation (T2), which accounted for 31.25% of the total indirect effect. CONCLUSIONS: Executive function and emotion regulation play a cross-time chain mediating role in the link between the parent-child relationship and preschoolers' social skills.