The impact of parenting style on children's sport injury: the role of child temperament as a mediator

Objective To explore the mediating role of child temperament in parental rearing style and children's sport injury, and to provide a theoretical basis for the prevention of children's sport injury. Methods Totally 2 212 students in grade 4 and 5 from 8 primary schools in Taiyuan City were selected by using stratified random cluster sampling method and surveyed with questionnaire. Results The incidence of sport injury was 33.3%. The incidence of sport injury in boys (37.9%) was higher than that of girls (28.2%)(χ²=22.688,P<0.001). In addition to FFI (the father's emotional warmth and understanding), the higher the scores, the greater the likelihood that children would be injured (all P<0.05). The higher the score of activity level, rhythmicity, reaction intensity, emotional nature and persistence, the greater the possibility of children's sports injury (all P<0.05). Child temperament had some mediating effect between active parenting style and sport injury, the mediating effect accounted for 10.8% of the total effects. Child temperament had some mediating effect between negative parenting style and sport injury, the mediating effect accounted for 9.4% of the total effects. Conclusions Parenting styles and temperament have significant influence on the occurrence of sport injury, therefore, parents should identify the high-risk groups and take appropriate parenting to reduce the rate and severity of sport injury.