Exploring the Relationship between Parental Stress and Child Behavioral Problems in Precocious Puberty: The Role of Parenting and Coping Strategies

Purpose: Children with precocious puberty undergo rapid physical changes that may lead to behavioral problems. Parenting style, along with parental stress and coping mechanisms, are important parental factors that affect the development of behavioral problems in children. Therefore, we examined the serial mediating effects of parenting style and parent’s coping mechanisms on the relationship between parental stress and behavioral problems in girls with precocious puberty. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study analyzed a convenience sample of 200 mothers of girls with precocious puberty at a university hospital located in a metropolitan area of Korea. Mothers completed The Parental Stress Measurement, Parents as Social Context Questionnaire, Coping Inventory for Stress Situations, and Korean version of the Child Behavior Checklist 6–18. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, Pearson’s correlations, and bootstrap analyses were used to analyze the collected data. Results: Parental stress from family and personal roles triggers emotion-oriented coping, which reinforces negative parenting and contributes to children’s behavioral issues. Conversely, stress from relationships promotes task-focused coping, which enhances positive parenting attitudes and reduces negative ones. Conclusion: Interventions should be developed and applied to help mothers of children with precocious puberty use task-focused coping strategies in stressful situations to positively impact their children’s behavioral problems.