[Relationship between home literacy environment and emotional regulation in children: the mediating effect of the parent-child relationship].

Objectives: To study the impact of the home literacy environment on children's emotional regulation skills and the mediating role of the parent-child relationship between them.
Methods: A stratified cluster sampling approach was employed to select 1 626 preschool children from five kindergartens in Nanjing. Questionnaires were used to collect detailed information on the home literacy environment, children's emotional regulation skills, and the parent-child relationship. A mediation model was established using the Process program in SPSS macro, and the significance of the mediation effect was tested using the Bootstrap method.
Results: The findings revealed a positive correlation between the home literacy environment and children's emotional regulation skills ( r =0.217, P <0.001), as well as parent-child intimacy ( r =0.065, P <0.01). Conversely, a negative correlation was found between the home literacy environment and parent-child conflict ( r =-0.129, P <0.001). Additionally, parent-child conflict demonstrated a negative correlation with children's emotional regulation skills ( r =-0.443, P <0.001), while parent-child intimacy exhibited a positive correlation ( r =0.247, P <0.001). The home literacy environment exerted a significant direct effect on children's emotional regulation skills ( β =0.162, P <0.001), and the mediating effect of the parent-child relationship accounted for 25.54% of the total effect.
Conclusions: The home literacy environment significantly influences children's emotional regulation skills, with the parent-child relationship partially mediating this relationship.