Mediational Role of Executive Functions on Parental Style and Anxiety and Depression Symptoms in Adolescents From Different Vulnerability Environments: A Cross‐Sectional Study

Adolescent parent-child communication and mental health: The mediating role of emotional intelligence and interpersonal distress

The Vicious Cycle Between Parental Psychological Control and Depressive Symptoms Among Chinese Early Adolescents: Highlighting the Mediating Role of Positivity and Sex Differences

Family communication patterns and adolescent depressive symptoms: sequential mediating effects of hedonic capacity and anger expression

Depression is increasingly prevalent among adolescents, highlighting the need to explore its underlying developmental mechanisms to inform effective prevention. This study examined how different family communication patterns longitudinally impact adolescent depressive symptoms, with a focus on the mediating roles of diminished hedonic capacity and anger expression. A total of 729 Chinese adolescents from five high schools participated in this two-wave longitudinal study over a six-month period. Participants completed the Family Communication Patterns Scale (FCPS), the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI), the Anhedonia Scale for Adolescents (ASA), and the Children’s Inventory of Anger (ChIA). Mediation analyses were conducted using Hayes’ PROCESS macro, alongside cross-lagged panel analyses to explore longitudinal effect. Cross-sectional analyses indicated that diminished hedonic capacity and anger experience sequentially mediated the relationship between family communication patterns and adolescent depressive symptoms. Specifically, this mediating effect existed for conversation orientation in junior high school students and female senior high school students, as well as for conformity orientation among female junior and senior high school students. In addition, longitudinal analyses revealed that diminished hedonic capacity mediated the associations at Wave 2. Our findings suggest that enhanced hedonic capacity and reduced anger expression may play a key role in the relationship between family communication patterns and adolescent depression, and hedonic capacity should be prioritized in practical interventions. These results support the potential value of interventions that promote positive family communication patterns as a means of mitigating adolescent depression, particularly for families with daughters.

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.

Parental Insecure Attachment Styles and Clinical Psychological Symptoms in Adolescent Children: The Mediating Role of Coparenting

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).