Exploring the impact of marital relationship on the mental health of children: Does parent-child relationship matter?

This study aimed to examine the associations between marital relationships and parent-child relationships on children's mental health. Participants included 19,487 students from the 2013-2014 baseline China Education Panel Survey. Structural equation modeling was applied to analyze the data and results revealed that marital and parent-child relationships positively affected children's mental health. Parent-child relationship also played a mediating role between marital relationship and children's mental health. The unique contributions of this study and its theoretical and practical implications were discussed.