Abstract

In order to understand the psychological mechanisms influencing the occurrence of child abuse, this study focused on the mother’s negative parenting behavior. This study intended to examine the mediating effects of hostile attribution bias and emotion dysregulation on the relationship between mother’s experience of childhood abuse and negative parenting behavior. Data of 396 mothers with children from grade 1 to 3 in elementary school were analyzed using structural equation modeling. As a result, mother’s childhood abuse directly predicted negative parenting behavior. In addition, emotion dysregulation showed significant mediating effects on the path between mother’s childhood abuse and negative parenting behavior. Furthermore, the double mediating effect was significant for the relationship between mother’s childhood abuse and negative parenting behavior. In other words, mother’s childhood abuse predicted an increase in hostile attribution bias, which in turn contributed to a high level of emotion dysregulation, further leading to an increase in negative parenting behavior. Finally, effective prevention strategies along with the implications of these findings are discussed.