Abstract

Path analysis was used to determine variables influencing problem solving of elementary school children. Participants were 545 dyads of 2nd-, 4th-, and 6th-grade children and their parents. The children and their parents responded to questionnaires on children's temperament, child rearing behaviors, children's self-esteem, depression, self-efficacy, and problem solving ability. Child's temperament and self-efficacy directly affected child's problem solving. Child's temperament, child-rearing behaviors, child's self-esteem, depression, and self-efficacy indirectly affected problem solving such that child's temperament affected child-rearing behaviors, which affected child's self-esteem. Then, child's self-esteem affected child's depression, which in turn, affected child's self-efficacy that directly predicted child's problem solving. Results of the test for the mediation, both warmth child-rearing behavior and child's self-efficacy were mediators of problem solving. Among the variables, self-efficacy played a critical role to predict child's problem solving.