Pathways from Maternal Expectations to Preschoolers’ Social-Emotional Adjustment: The Mediating Role of Maternal Involvement

This study investigated the relationship between maternal expectations and preschool children’s social-emotional adjustment in China, with a focus on the mediating roles of home-based and school-based maternal involvement and the moderating effects of key demographic variables. Participants were 547 mothers of preschoolers from Anhui Province, China, who reported on their expectations, involvement behaviors, and their children’s adjustment. Research Findings: The results revealed that: (1) maternal expectations for social-emotional competencies were positively associated with child prosociality and negatively associated with internalizing and externalizing problems; (2) home-based involvement fully mediated these associations, whereas school-based involvement did not function as a significant mediator; (3) child gender moderated key pathways: the link from maternal expectations to prosociality was significant and positive for girls but not for boys, and school-based involvement showed a paradoxical negative association with prosociality for girls only; (4) the model was invariant across grade level, sibling status, maternal education, and family socioeconomic status. Practice or Policy: These findings underscore that empowering home-based parental involvement is central to intervention, while also necessitating gender-differentiated support to effectively foster preschoolers’ social-emotional development.