Nonlinear association between maternal depressive symptoms and overreactive parenting among preschool children: a cross-sectional study.

Authors

Jia Wang, Xin Zhang, Jihua Hu

Published in

BMC public health. Volume 26. Issue 1. Aug 05, 2026. Epub Aug 05, 2026.

Abstract

Maternal depressive symptoms (MDS) have been associated with negative parenting practices. However, research examining the specific pattern between MDS and overreactive parenting remains limited. Our objective was to comprehensively assess the association between MDS and overreactive parenting and to explore the potential threshold effect.
This was a cross-sectional study of 17,115 mother-child pairs with children aged 3-6 years from public kindergartens. Data were collected between February 28 and March 5, 2025, through maternal self-report questionnaires. MDS were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), while overreactive parenting behaviors were assessed using the Parenting Scale. Generalized additive models and two-piece-wise linear regression were employed to explore the nonlinear association and identify potential threshold effects, with adjustment for potential confounders including maternal age, child age, child gender, maternal education level, maternal marital status, single-child status, and annual family income.
Among participants, 2,763 mothers (16.1%) exhibited elevated depressive symptoms (CES-D score ≥ 16). Mothers with elevated depressive symptoms demonstrated significantly higher overreactive parenting scores. In adjusted analyses, a nonlinear association between maternal CES-D score and overreactive parenting was identified, with a turning point at a CES-D score of 16 (95% CI: 15-18). As the maternal CES-D score increased per SD, when the CES-D score was < 16, the β for overreactive parenting was 0.45 (95% CI: 0.42-0.48, P < 0.0001). When the CES-D score was ≥ 16, the β for overreactive parenting was 0.06 (95% CI: 0.03-0.10, P = 0.0001).
This study reveals a nonlinear association between MDS and overreactive parenting among preschool children aged 3-6 years from public kindergartens. With increasing MDS, overreactive parenting also increases, particularly at lower levels of MDS.

PMID:
42972521
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 03 Nov 2026.

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