Research has documented significant influences of parental psychological well-being on parenting. Yet, few studies have examined multiple measures of psychological well-being simultaneously to understand the underlying pathways and mediation factors. The present study employed new parents, without chronically high depressive symptoms, to examine across-time associations between the frequency of story reading and multiple measures of parental psychological well-being, namely the depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and global sense of personal control, in the first six years after becoming parents. Cross-lagged panel models with three time intervals were constructed to examine the across-time associations with 177 new parents. Significant direct and indirect effects between parental psychological well-being and story reading in the first six years after childbirth were identified. In the first three years after childbirth, new parents with more depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem tended to engage in more frequent story reading. New parents’ global sense of personal control, when the child was one to three years old, had a direct positive effect on story reading two to three years later. Through the mediation of self-esteem, parents with low psychological well-being after childbirth tended to engage in more frequent story reading when the child was three to six years old. Furthermore, the indirect effects of story reading on parental well-being were mediated by self-esteem and global sense of personal control. Findings from the present study underscored the importance of considering multiple measures of psychological well-being in understanding the bidirectional interactions between new parents’ well-being and early story reading in early family context.

研究记录了父母心理健康对养育子女的重大影响。然而，很少有研究同时检查多种心理健康指标，以了解潜在的途径和中介因素。本研究聘请没有长期重度抑郁症状的新父母来检查故事阅读频率与父母心理健康的多种衡量标准之间的跨时间关联，即抑郁症状、自尊和个人控制感。 ，在成为父母后的前六年。构建了具有三个时间间隔的交叉滞后面板模型，以检查与 177 名新父母的跨时间关联。确定了分娩后前六年父母心理健康与故事阅读之间的显着直接和间接影响。在分娩后的前三年，有更多抑郁症状和自尊心较低的新父母倾向于更频繁地阅读故事。新父母的全球个人控制感，在孩子一到三岁时，对两到三年后的故事阅读有直接的积极影响。通过自尊的调节，产后心理幸福感较低的父母在孩子三到六岁时往往会更频繁地阅读故事。此外，故事阅读对父母幸福感的间接影响是由自尊和个人控制感来调节的。