Parental, child and socio-contextual factors associated with parenting self-efficacy among parents of children aged 0–7 years old: the CIKEO study

Background A high parenting self-efficacy (PSE) has been associated with positive parenting and positive child development. However, there is limited and inconsistent information on factors associated with PSE. Objective To investigate factors associated with PSE in parents of children aged 0–7 years old, and to explore whether the associations were different between mothers and fathers. Methods We performed a cross-sectional analysis of the baseline data from a prospective cohort study: the CIKEO study. A total of 1012 parents (mean age = 33.8, SD = 5.0) completed self-reported measure of PSE and 18 potential factors associated with PSE. Results Multivariable models revealed that lower parenting stress, fewer child behavior problems, better eating behavior, better parental and child general health, a smaller number of children living in the household, higher perceived level of social support and having a migration background were associated with higher levels of PSE ( p