Dynamic characteristics of parent-adolescent closeness: Predicting adolescent emotion dysregulation

Emotion dysregulation is linked to adolescent psychological problems. However, little is known about how lability in daily closeness of parent-adolescent dyads affects the development of emotion dysregulation. This study examined how closeness lability with parents was associated with emotion dysregulation 12 months later. The sample included 144 adolescents (M = 14.62, SD = 0.83) who participated in a baseline assessment, 21-day daily diaries, and a 12-month follow-up assessment. Parents and adolescents both reported adolescent emotion dysregulation at baseline and follow-up assessments, while adolescents reported daily parent-adolescent closeness. Results indicate that lability in father-adolescent closeness was associated with increased emotion dysregulation at 12 months reported by adolescents. However, lability in mother-adolescent closeness was not associated with adolescent emotion dysregulation. Moreover, when baseline father-adolescent closeness was high, greater lability in father-adolescent closeness was associated with decreased emotion dysregulation. Findings indicate that daily fluctuations in father-adolescent closeness are a key family characteristic that links to long-term adolescent emotion dysregulation.

Parental rejection and control: Potential risks for excessive Internet usage among adolescents

BACKGROUND

Internet addiction is an emergent health hazard among adolescents, especially after COVID19. Parenting factors in a family environment specifically, have potential roles in either causing excessive internet usage, or in protecting teenagers from internet addiction.

AIM

The aim of the study was to understand factors in parent-adolescent relationship that determine low and excessive internet usage.

METHODS

A total of 102 adolescents within the age group of 13 to 18 years from two different schools in urban Bengaluru, India were recruited. Data was collected using three instruments namely semi structured tool to assess socio-demographic characteristics, Young's internet addiction test for internet usage and parental bonding instrument for adolescent perception about parenting dimensions.

RESULTS

Half of the participants were found to have mild to severe levels of internet addiction, and the remaining half had normal levels of internet usage. The results showed that decreased care and increased control from the mother, high autonomy from father and increased rejection from both parents as risk factors associated with adolescent internet excessive use. No other significant associations were found between adolescents' demographic, academic, peer and school profile and their internet addiction.

CONCLUSION

As internet has become an inevitable part of our life, parent-adolescent relationship forms an essential moderating factor in adolescents' internet usage.

Parent-adolescent coping with prolonged geopolitical conflict: A qualitative analysis focusing on distress and resilience

Adolescents who were raised in conflict-ridden areas may face unique challenges that may also impact their transition to adulthood. We explored coping processes, distress symptoms, and resilience resources of late adolescents and their parents residing in Israeli communities bordering Gaza and exposed to ongoing conflict-related violence. We conducted in-depth interviews with late adolescents and one of their parents (n = 8 dyads, 16 individual interviews). Four main themes emerged: (a) dynamic adaptation - complex movement between coping styles; (b) distress symptoms; (c) siblingship - the central role of siblings in shaping adolescent resilience; and (d) community impacts - the ways in which social and physical environment can foster resilience. The findings broaden existing coping theories and offer practical implications for practitioners providing support to populations exposed to prolonged conflicts.

Supportive parent-adolescent relationships as a foundation for adolescent emotion regulation and adjustment

Introduction

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the influence of supportive parent-adolescent relationships on adolescent adjustment (i.e., prosocial behavior, aggression, depressive symptoms) both directly and indirectly (via adolescent emotion regulation). Scholars have posited that adolescent emotion regulation (ER) may serve as an underlying mechanism in the link between parenting and adolescent adjustment. Supportive parent-adolescent relationships (i.e., openness, acceptance, emotional responsiveness) may be a key emotion socialization mechanism influencing adolescent ER.

Methods

The sample included 206 adolescents (Age Range= 10-18years; 51% female; 70.4% ethnic minorities) and one primary caregiver (83.3% biological mothers, 38.7% single parents). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was implemented to investigate the direct and indirect (via adolescent ER) effects of supportive parent-adolescent relationships on adolescent adjustment. We also explored whether these indirect and direct effects varied by adolescent sex and age.

Results

Results suggested direct and indirect (via adolescent ER) links between supportive parent-adolescent relationships and adolescent prosocial behavior, aggressive behavior, and depressive symptoms. Moreover, evidence indicated that many of these pathways were significant for boys but not girls. No evidence of youth age as a moderator was found.

Discussion

These findings highlight the important role supportive parent-adolescent relationships play in adolescent emotional and behavioral adjustment. Parenting programs could focus on facilitating a mutually responsive parent-adolescent relationship with a specific focus on the dynamic nature of emotion socialization during adolescence.

Combining attachment-based family therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy to improve outcomes for adolescents with anxiety

Increases in adolescent anxiety over the past several years suggest a need for trauma-informed, culturally responsive interventions that help teens cope with environmental stressors like those associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Although abundant evidence supports the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in treating adolescent anxiety, not all teens respond positively to CBT. CBT does not typically include strategies that address important family factors that may be impacting the teen's functioning, such as the attachment relationship. Attachment-based family therapy (ABFT) addresses the attachment relationship and other factors that contribute to the adolescent's anxiety and related distress. By enhancing positive parenting behaviors, such as acceptance and validation of the adolescent's distress and promotion of their autonomy, ABFT sessions may repair the attachment relationship and increase the family's ability and willingness to engage in CBT tasks aimed at reducing anxiety. This theoretical paper describes the ABFT model and proposes that implementing ABFT sessions prior to CBT could result in better clinical outcomes for adolescents with anxiety disorders by improving the context within which the anxiety symptoms and treatment are experienced. Given that ABFT is sensitive and responsive to family and other contextual factors, adolescents from marginalized communities and those from less individualistic cultures may find the model to be more acceptable and appropriate for addressing factors related to their anxiety. Thus, a combined ABFT+CBT model might result in better outcomes for adolescents who have not historically responded well to CBT alone.

Emotional Reactivity to Daily Family Conflicts: Testing the Within-Person Sensitization

Although the sensitization hypothesis posits that heightened reactivity to interparental conflict is linked to adolescent psychopathology, limited studies tested whether sensitization would emerge in parent-adolescent conflict and across ethnicity or culture. This study revisits the sensitization hypothesis by examining adolescent emotional reactivity to interparental and parent-adolescent conflicts on a daily timescale. The sample included 163 adolescents (55% girls; Mage  = 12.79) and their parents (78% females; Mage  = 45.46) who completed a 10-day reports in Taiwan. Multilevel modeling results showed that, instead of interparental conflict, adolescents with greater histories of parent-adolescent conflict exhibited higher emotional reactivity when parent-adolescent conflict was higher. The findings underscore the importance of parent-adolescent conflict in evaluating adolescent developmental risk.

Dyadic parent-adolescent relationship quality as pathways from maternal childhood abuse to adolescent psychopathology

Children of maternal caregivers abused in childhood are at increased risk for mental health problems including anxiety and depression. To date, most studies exploring the intergenerational transmission of trauma have focused on younger children, with far fewer studies investigating adolescent mental health. Previous research suggests that maternal childhood abuse negatively impacts the parent-adolescent relationship, which may contribute to the development and maintenance of adolescent mental health problems. The current study examined dyadic reports of maternal-adolescent relationship quality as mediators linking maternal reports of childhood abuse to adolescent depression and anxiety. The bootstrapped indirect effects from maternal childhood abuse to adolescent symptoms of anxiety and depression were significant through adolescent reports of relationship quality, but not through maternal reports of relationship quality. Findings suggest that an adolescent's perception of their maternal-adolescent relationship may mediate the relationship between their maternal caregiver's childhood abuse and their own symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Developmental timing of parent-youth intimacy as a protective factor for adolescent adjustment problems

Parent-youth intimacy protects adolescents from adjustment problems, including weight concerns, low self-esteem, and depressive symptoms. This study aimed to identify when in development parent-youth intimacy emerges as a protective factor, how this protective effect changes in its strength across adolescence, and whether there are differences in intimacy-adjustment linkages depending on parent and youth gender. The sample was 388 predominately White American adolescents (50.8% female; ages 12-20 years, M = 15.2, SD = 1.63 at Time 1) from 202 families. Time-varying effect models revealed that associations between intimacy and adjustment problems were dynamic and differed by parent and youth gender and across adjustment problems. Father-youth intimacy was associated with fewer weight concerns across most of adolescence for girls and boys, and these effects were strongest in mid- and late adolescence, respectively. Mother-youth intimacy was associated with boys' but not girls' weight concerns, and only in early adolescence. Father-youth intimacy was associated with fewer depressive symptoms for boys and girls across most of adolescence, whereas mother-youth intimacy was associated with fewer depressive symptoms in mid-adolescence. However, the association between intimacy and depressive symptoms was strongest during mid-adolescence for mother- and father-youth intimacy. Finally, father-youth intimacy was associated with higher self-esteem from early through mid-adolescence for boys and girls, whereas mother-youth intimacy was associated with higher self-esteem across most of adolescence for girls and during early and late adolescence for boys. Findings have implications for the timing and targets of family interventions and highlight parents' unique and shared roles in adolescents' adjustment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Dynamic Associations of Parent-Adolescent Closeness and Friend Support With Adolescent Depressive Symptoms Across Ages 12-19

Supportive relationships with parents and friends reduce adolescent risk for depression; however, whether and how the strength of these associations changes across adolescence remains less clear. Age-varying associations of mother-adolescent and father-adolescent closeness and friend support with depressive symptoms were examined across ages 12.5-19.5 using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 4,819). Positive relationships with mothers, fathers, and friends were associated with lower depressive symptoms across adolescence, and the associations were generally stable across age. The association between father-adolescent closeness and depressive symptoms was stronger for girls than for boys during mid-adolescence. Mother-adolescent closeness was more strongly negatively associated with depressive symptoms in the context of higher friend support during mid-adolescence.

The Impact of Interparental Conflicts on Online Game Addiction Symptomatology: The Mediating Roles of the Parent-Adolescent Relationship and Loneliness in Adolescents

Many studies have documented the close association that exists between interparental conflicts and the symptomatology of online game addiction. However, the underlying mechanism that drives this association has not been fully investigated. This cross-sectional study explores the effect of interparental conflicts on online game addiction symptomatology in adolescents, focusing on the mediating effects of the parent-adolescent relationship and of adolescent loneliness. A total of 553 middle school students completed a questionnaire that included: a perception of interparental conflict scale, a level of closeness to parents scale, a short UCLA Loneliness scale, and an online game addiction symptomatology scale. Results showed that interparental conflicts, parent-adolescent relations, and adolescent loneliness are all significantly related to online game addiction symptomatology in adolescents. Structural equation modeling results indicate that the effects of interparental conflicts on adolescent online game addiction symptomatology are partially mediated by the parent-adolescent relationship and by adolescent loneliness.

Parent-adolescent physiological synchrony: Moderating effects of adolescent emotional insecurity

The present study investigated physiological synchrony in the parasympathetic nervous system among fathers, mothers, and adolescents during a real-time family interaction, and child characteristics that may moderate the level of physiological synchrony. Our sample consisted of 191 families with adolescents (M_age  = 12.4 years) and both of their parents, who participated in a triadic family conflict discussion. During the discussion, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was measured for all three family members. Multilevel analysis indicated a significant positive concurrent synchrony between adolescents and their mothers, as well as between fathers and mothers on a minute-to-minute basis. No RSA synchrony was found between adolescents and their fathers. Furthermore, adolescent emotional insecurity significantly moderated mother-adolescent RSA synchrony. Whereas adolescents with low emotional insecurity exhibited positive synchrony with their mothers, no synchrony was observed when adolescent emotional insecurity was high. In conclusion, findings of the present study illuminate the patterns of RSA synchrony among parents and adolescents and highlight a link between adolescent emotional insecurity and attenuated mother-adolescent physiological synchrony.

Examining Parental Internal Processes Associated with Indulgent Parenting: A Thematic Analysis

OBJECTIVES

This study examined the external influences and internal processes in parental beliefs, perceptions, and emotions regarding the parenting of adolescent children and the role of parental indulgence.

METHODS

Interviews of 29 parents of adolescents, who were approximately 15 years old, were conducted regarding the perceptions of parental indulgence they had experienced and currently practice. The study incorporated a family ecosystem approach with qualitative analytic methods including MAXQDA to identify thematic findings.

RESULTS

Findings revealed three themes and their subthemes: (1) Responding to the external world: Family life adjustments and indulgence, which encompassed (a) Family life adjustments (i.e., divorce, separation) and managing (b) Increased demands (i.e., responsibilities at home and school); (2) Reflecting on the parenting patterns in hindsight-Internal search for clarity and effectiveness with an in-depth (a) Parent reflection process regarding their choice to indulge, and (b) Clear parenting choices, or, exceptions to indulgence; and (3) Reconciling personal experiences of being parented: Discontinuity and continuity, involved reflections on parents desire to change or keep the parenting practices modeled by their caregivers. Emotional experiences were shaped by parents' own perceptions that parenting needs to be effective, but vulnerability occurred when faced with distractions in the family due to internal pressures such as marital disruptions and external stresses of social norms and cultural expectations.

CONCLUSIONS

Results demonstrate how parents emotionally cope with pressure and how multiple emotional undertones potentially drive their decisions to indulge. Directions for future research are discussed.

Maternal Emotional and Physiological Reactivity: Implications for Parenting and the Parenting-Adolescent Relationship

OBJECTIVE

Parent physiology and emotion may play an important role in parenting and parent-child relationship quality, yet little research has examined these associations in parents of adolescents. This study employed a naturalistic laboratory-based approach to observe maternal reactivity (mothers' cardiovascular and negative emotional responses) during a parent-adolescent interaction task (PAIT) and associations with parenting behavior and parent-adolescent relationship quality. We also examined possible indirect effect of maternal reactivity on parent-adolescent relationship quality through parenting variables.

METHODS

Mothers (n = 196) of 12-14 year olds completed the PAIT, a 10-minute laboratory task in which mothers and adolescents discussed a family conflict topic. Mother-rated negative emotional experience, mother heart rate (HR), and systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) responses to PAIT were collected. Additionally, observed maladaptive and positive parenting during PAIT and reported parent-adolescent relationship quality were collected.

RESULTS

We found that mothers' heightened negative emotional experience in PAIT was associated with heightened observed and reported maladaptive parenting and lower parent-adolescent relationship quality (p<.001). Additionally, blunted HR reactivity was related to higher positive parenting in PAIT (p<.05). Lastly, we found an indirect effect of HR on parent-adolescent relationship through positive parenting and an indirect effect of maternal negative emotional experience on parent-adolescent relationship quality through maladaptive and positive parenting. In sum, high emotional reactivity and blunted HR predicted poorer parenting, and directly and indirectly affected parent-adolescent relationship quality.

CONCLUSIONS

Parent reactivity may be important to consider in interventions.

A two-way street: Mothers' and adolescent daughters' depression and PTSD symptoms jointly predict dyadic behaviors

Dyadic interactions may be affected by the mental health of either partner; however, both partners' symptoms are typically not considered simultaneously in observational studies of parent-child relationships. Using the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM), we examine how depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in mothers and adolescent daughters predict their own and each other's relational behaviors (warmth, hostility, communication) during interactions, and whether partners' relational behaviors predict changes in symptoms 1 month later. Participants include 150 mother (mean age = 41.6) and daughter (mean age = 15.1) dyads from diverse (57% Latina; 23% Black, 20% White), low-income families. Mothers and daughters reported on their symptoms and participated in a videotaped interaction task. A subset completed a follow-up interview 1 month later. For both depression and PTSD, mothers' and daughters' symptoms predicted their own relational behaviors (actor effects). In contrast, partner effects varied by symptom type and family role. Adolescents' depressive symptoms predicted how their mothers acted toward them, beyond maternal symptoms (an additive partner effect); the converse was not true. Mother and daughter PTSD symptoms interactively predicted daughters' relational behaviors (an Actor × Partner interaction), with buffering or exacerbating effects based on dyad symptom similarity. PTSD symptoms had unique effects beyond depression. In longitudinal analysis, mothers' relational behaviors predicted changes in adolescents' depressive symptoms, but adolescent behaviors were unrelated to subsequent maternal symptoms. Findings suggest that depression and PTSD symptoms may affect family relationships differently, and highlight the importance of considering both members' symptoms during interactions. Implications for dyadic interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Parent-adolescent relationship in youths with a chronic condition

BACKGROUND

Suffering from a chronic disease or disability (CDD) during adolescence can be a burden for both the adolescents and their parents. The aim of the present study is to assess how living with a CDD during adolescence, the quality of parent-adolescent relationship (PAR) and the adolescent's psychosocial development interact with each other.

METHODS

Using the Swiss Multicenter Adolescent Survey on Health 2002 (SMASH02) database, we compared adolescents aged 16-20 years with a CDD (n = 760) with their healthy peers (n = 6493) on sociodemographics, adolescents' general and psychosocial health, interparental relationship and PAR.

RESULTS

Bivariate analyses showed that adolescents with a CDD had a poorer psychosocial health and a more difficult relationship with their parents. The log-linear model indirectly linked CDD and poor PAR through four variables: two of the adolescents' psychosocial health variables (suicide attempt and sensation seeking), the need for help regarding difficulties with parents and a highly educated mother that acted as a protective factor, allowing for a better parent-adolescent with a CDD relationship.

CONCLUSION

It is essential for health professionals taking care of adolescents with a CDD to distinguish between issues in relation with the CDD from other psychosocial difficulties, in order to help these adolescents and their parents deal with them appropriately and thus maintain a healthy PAR.

Economic hardship and Mexican-origin adolescents' adjustment: examining adolescents' perceptions of hardship and parent-adolescent relationship quality

Studies examining economic hardship consistently have linked family economic hardship to adolescent adjustment via parent and family functioning, but limited attention has been given to adolescents' perceptions of these processes. To address this, the authors investigated the intervening effects of adolescents' perceptions of economic hardship and of parent-adolescent warmth and conflict on the associations between parental economic hardship and adolescent adjustment (i.e., depressive symptoms, risky behaviors, and school performance) in a sample of 246 Mexican-origin families. Findings revealed that both mothers' and fathers' reports of economic hardship were positively related to adolescents' reports of economic hardship, which in turn, were negatively related to parent-adolescent warmth and positively related to parent-adolescent conflict with both mothers and fathers. Adolescents' perceptions of economic hardship were indirectly related to (a) depressive symptoms through warmth with mothers and conflict with mothers and fathers, (b) involvement in risky behaviors through conflict with mothers and fathers, and (c) GPA through conflict with fathers. Our findings highlight the importance of adolescents' perceptions of family economic hardship and relationships with mothers and fathers in predicting adolescent adjustment.

Self-Esteem and Mastery Trajectories in High School by Social Class and Gender

Using longitudinal data from 769 white adolescents in the Midwest, this research applies a social structure and personality perspective to examine variation in self-esteem and mastery trajectories by gender and SES across the high school years. Analyses reveal that high SES adolescents experience significantly steeper gains in self-esteem and mastery compared to low SES adolescents, resulting in the reversal of SES differences in self-esteem and the emergence of significant SES differences in mastery. Pre-existing gender differences in self-esteem narrow between the 9(th) and 12(th) grade because self-esteem increases at a faster rate among girls than boys during high school. These SES and gender differences in self-concept growth are explained by changes in parent-adolescent relationship quality and stress exposure. Specifically, boys and adolescents with lower SES backgrounds experienced steeper declines in parent-adolescent relationship quality and steeper gains in chronic work strain compared to girls and low SES adolescents, respectively.

Work and Mexican American parent-adolescent relationships: the mediating role of parent well-being

This study of Mexican American two-parent families (N = 246) examined the role of parents' well-being (i.e., depressive symptoms, role overload) as a potential mechanism through which parent occupational conditions (i.e., self-direction, hazardous conditions, physical activity, work pressure) are linked to parent-adolescent relationship qualities (i.e., warmth, conflict, disclosure). Depressive symptoms mediated the links between maternal and paternal work pressure and parent-adolescent warmth, conflict, and disclosure. For mothers, depressive symptoms also mediated the links between self-direction and mother-adolescent warmth, conflict, and disclosure; for fathers, role overload mediated the links between work pressure and hazardous conditions with father-adolescent warmth.

Conduct disorder: new directions in promoting effective parenting and strengthening parent-adolescent relationships

INTRODUCTION

Although it is always preferable to prevent childhood mental health and behavioural problems, it is not always possible to do so early in their developmental trajectory. Adolescence offers another window of opportunity to intervene and reduce risk or prevent the development of late onset conditions. In this paper, we focus on adolescent Conduct Disorder, noting the special challenges of this developmental period and implications for interventions. We briefly discuss the growing evidence of the importance of parent and family targeted interventions.

METHOD

Forty-eight adolescents with severe Conduct Disorder and their caregivers completed questionnaires at the beginning and end of a parent group program (Connect Parent Group). The program is guided by attachment principles and focuses on skill development in the domains of parental attunement, empathy and effective dyadic affect regulation. These skills are the building blocks of secure attachment and important components of effective parenting.

RESULTS

Caregivers' reports revealed significant improvements in their perceived parenting competence and satisfaction; reduced adolescent aggressive behaviour, internalizing and externalizing problems; and reduced levels of avoidance in the caregiver-adolescent relationship.

CONCLUSION

These findings provide further support for the importance of parent and family focused interventions in the treatment of Conduct Disorder in both children and adolescents.