The Indirect Effects of Fathers’ Parenting Style and Parent Emotion Regulation on the Relationship Between Father Self-Efficacy and Children’s Mental Health Difficulties

Improving parental self-efficacy has been linked with reductions in child mental health difficulties; however, underlying mechanisms remain unclear, especially for fathers. This study investigated whether father self-efficacy influences child mental health difficulties indirectly through parenting style and parent-facilitated regulation of children’s negative emotions. A community sample of American fathers (N = 350, M = 39.45 years old) completed self-reports on father self-efficacy, parenting styles, parent-facilitated emotion regulation, and their children’s mental health difficulties (aged 4–12). Path analysis was used to test a cross-sectional, parallel–sequential indirect effect model. Father self-efficacy had a significant indirect effect on child mental health difficulties via three significant pathways of permissive parenting, authoritative parenting–acceptance of child’s negative emotions, and authoritarian parenting–avoidance of child’s negative emotions. Our model explained a moderate amount of variance in child mental health difficulties. The findings support promoting father self-efficacy through parenting interventions and highlight parenting beliefs as important for clinicians providing child mental health care.