Reciprocal relations between parent-adolescent closeness and adolescent depressive symptoms across the pre-to-post COVID-19 pandemic.

The Parent-Adolescent Relationship Context as a Moderator of Associations Between Secrecy and Disclosure to Parents and Adolescents' Adjustment.

INTRODUCTION Stattin and Kerr's (2000) seminal work illustrated the importance of adolescent disclosure, rather than parents' monitoring behaviors, in predicting adolescent adjustment. Subsequent work differentiated secrecy from disclosure, yet most of the existing research has examined these constructs in early or mid-adolescence. This study examines two indices of the parent-child relationship-autonomy support and conflict frequency-as moderators of associations between secrecy/disclosure and internalizing and externalizing domains of adjustment in late adolescence. METHODS Participants included 242 youth (50% White, 18% Black, 17% Hispanic) who participated during mid-adolescence (Mage = 15.4 years) and late adolescence (Mage = 18.7). At both time points, adolescents provided self-reports of their disclosure, secrecy, parents' autonomy support, frequency of conflict with parents, antisocial behavior problems, and depressive symptoms. RESULTS Lower levels of disclosure and higher levels of secrecy uniquely predicted concurrent levels of antisocial behavior and depressive symptoms, and the effect of secrecy on antisocial behavior in late adolescence was exacerbated by high levels of parent-adolescent conflict. In contrast, secrecy, but not disclosure, uniquely predicted antisocial behavior longitudinally, and the association between secrecy and antisocial behavior was strongest among adolescents with highly autonomy supportive parents. CONCLUSION Findings suggest that routine disclosure to parents protects against antisocial behavior and depressive symptoms concurrently, but not over time. Keeping secrets from parents is associated with increased risk of antisocial behavior problems, although the context of the parent-child relationship should be considered.

Developmental Changes in the Relationships Between Depressive Symptoms and Bullying Victimization From Early to Middle Adolescence: A Cross-Lagged Panel Network Analysis.

School Relational Environment and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: Insights from Latent Profile and Network Analysis.

Bidirectional Relationship Between Parent–Child Conflict, Bullying, and Adolescent NSSI : The Role of Self‐Compassion and Gender

Two seemingly opposite yet equally harmful forms of adolescent behavior, bullying, and non‐suicidal self‐injury (NSSI), are showing an alarming upward trend. Based on Coercion Theory, parent–child conflict is considered a key factor influencing adolescents' maladaptive behaviors, but its bidirectional dynamic relationship and underlying moderating mechanisms remain to be elucidated. This study employed a longitudinal design to examine the bidirectional relationship between parent–child conflict and adolescent bullying/NSSI, as well as the moderating roles of self‐compassion and gender. A total of 6972 adolescents from Anhui, Hainan, and Sichuan, China, completed self‐report questionnaires at two time points. Among these participants, boys accounted for 48.70% and girls for 51.30%, with an average age of 15.70 years (SD = 1.23). Cross‐lagged panel analysis revealed that parental conflict at T1 significantly predicted bullying and NSSI at T2, and vice versa, forming a vicious cycle. Furthermore, self‐compassion moderated the relationship: when adolescents had lower self‐compassion, parental conflict at T1 increased bullying at T2. Gender difference analyses revealed that T1 bullying increased T2 parent–child conflict among girls, while no predictive effect was observed in boys. These findings highlight the importance of self‐compassion and gender in the dynamics of adolescent maladaptive behaviors and parent–child relationships, providing empirical support from a positive psychology perspective for breaking the negative “home‐school” cycle and promoting adolescent mental health.

Childhood trauma, emotion regulation, and depressive symptoms in parents and adolescents: Actor-partner interdependence analysis.

Parental childhood trauma exerts profound impacts on both their own and their offspring's psychopathological problems such as depressive symptoms. The underlying mechanisms of these effects, particularly from the perspective of parent-child interdependence, still need further exploration. This study adopted the actor-partner interdependence model to investigate the associations between parental childhood trauma and parental and adolescent depressive symptoms, and the mediating roles of parental and adolescent emotion regulation difficulties in the relations. This study included 125 eligible parent-adolescent dyads from Northwest China, with data collected at two time points across a 1-year interval. Parents aged 33-69 years (Mage = 41.19, SD = 7.19, 58% mothers) were invited to complete the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale at T1 and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale at T2, and adolescents aged 13-16 (Mage = 14.41, SD = 0.53, 50% girls) were asked to complete the face-word Stroop task assessing emotion regulation difficulties at T1 and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale at T2. Results showed that parental childhood trauma at T1 predicted both parental and adolescent depressive symptoms at T2. In addition, parental childhood trauma at T1 affected parental depressive symptoms at T2 only via parental emotion regulation difficulties at T1, and parental childhood trauma at T1 affected adolescent depressive symptoms at T2 via both adolescent and parental emotion regulation difficulties at T1. These findings suggest an actor-partner interdependence mechanism underlying the associations between parental childhood trauma and their own and offspring's depressive symptoms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Parent–Child (In)congruence in Reports of Parenting and Adolescent Depression: Role of Gender and Developmental Stage

This study aimed to investigate how parent–adolescent (in)congruence in perceiving parental psychological control (PC) and autonomy support (AS) is related to adolescent depression, and the moderating effects of adolescent gender and developmental stages. Adolescents generally hold more negative views of parenting than their parents do. However, little is known about the association between (in)congruence in PC and AS and adolescent depression, and whether this association varies across gender and developmental stage. Polynomial regression with response surface analysis (RSA) was conducted in this study. Participants were 2356 adolescents (M age  = 14.06, SD = 1.63; 54.80% girls) and their parents in the Chinese mainland. Our findings revealed that congruent perceptions of high PC and AS were linked to higher and lower depression, respectively. Parent–adolescent incongruence in terms of more negative perceptions among adolescents (i.e., higher PC and lower AS) than parents was associated with higher depression. While adolescent gender did not moderate these associations, adolescent grade did in the mother–child dyads. Adolescent depression was associated with parent–adolescent discrepancies in PC and AS, with developmental stage having a moderating effect on this association. These findings underscore the meaningful implications of parent–child discrepancy in adolescent development. Our findings are also expected to guide the development of education programs and family services that promote parent–adolescent communication, ensuring adolescents' optimal development and the well‐being of the entire family.