Mother-child joint activity and behaviour problems of pre-school children

Background: Behaviour problems are common among pre‐school children, and a substantial proportion persist, causing significant burden to the family, schools and health services. Relatively little research has addressed the effects of positive parenting on behaviour disorder in pre‐school children, particularly in larger population‐based studies. Method: A cross‐sectional postal survey of a representative, population‐based sample of 800 mothers of 3½‐year‐old children living in an outer London Borough was carried out to assess the association between mother–child joint activity and behaviour problems of pre‐school children. The response rate was 70%. Results: Lower levels of mother–child joint activity remained independently associated with behaviour problems of pre‐school children both on a binary and a continuous scale after adjusting for a wide range of household, maternal and child circumstances. The association between low levels of mother–child joint activities and behaviour problems of the children was stronger in the presence of social problems in the family. Conclusion: Possible causal pathways and directions for future research and intervention are discussed.