PARENTING STYLE AS A MEDIATING LINK BETWEEN PARENTAL EMOTIONAL HEALTHAND ADJUSTMENT OF MALTREATED CHILDREN

The roles of parenting style and parents' emotional health status on c hildren's social-emotional functioning were examined. Approaches to ch ild-rearing were expected to mediate the impact of parental emotional health on child adjustment. The sample consisted of 55 parent-child dy ads characterized by child maltreatment. Hierarchical regression analy ses showed that both aspects of parental functioning, emotional health status and child-rearing style, predicted child adjustment. However, further analyses yielded support for the mediation model; the impact o f emotional health on child adjustment was significantly reduced when the effects of parenting style were controlled. Results suggest that p arental approaches to child-rearing play a key role in shaping childre n's social-emotional functioning, with parents' emotional health statu s playing a more indirect role.