Résumé
Children’s self-regulation (SR) impacts health behaviours (Miller et al., 2020) through social contexts (e.g., parenting styles; Eisenberg et al., 2019). One avenue to understanding SR in children is through the intergenerational transmission of SR from parent to child (Bridgett et al., 2015). Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between parenting style, children’s SR, and children’s health behaviours. North American parents (n = 244; Mage = 37.85, SD = 63.20; 56.60% White) with young children (4-9 years old) completed an online questionnaire measuring parenting style (i.e., authoritative, authoritarian, permissive), children’s SR (i.e., effortful control, negative affect, surgency), and health behaviours (i.e., eating behaviours, sleep disturbances, and physical activity (PA)) to explore the relationships between parenting style and children’s SR, and children’s SR and their health behaviours. Multiple linear regressions revealed, authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles positively predicted effortful control (b = 0.58, 0.39, respectively), where only authoritative parenting significantly predicted surgency (b = 0.30). Permissive parenting negatively predicted effortful control (b = 0.30) and positively predicted negative affect (b = 0.37). Effortful control positively and negatively predicted components of eating behaviour (b = 0.25 - 0.34), and negatively predicted sleep disturbances (b = 2.44). Negative affect positively predicted components of eating behaviour (b = 0.19, 0.33), and sleep disturbances (b = 3.87). Surgency did not predict any health outcomes. PA was not significantly predicted by children’s SR. The results demonstrate the role parenting styles play in children’s development and of SR in facilitating health behaviours.
