Negative parenting and risk-taking behaviors in Chinese adolescents: Testing a sequential mediation model in a three-wave longitudinal study

Abstract

• Negative parenting was positively associated with risk-taking behaviors. • Deviant peer affiliation mediated between negative parenting and risky behaviors. • The direct effect was sequentially mediated by life satisfaction and deviant peer. Negative parenting is an established predictor of youth risk-taking behaviors, but little is known about the mechanism of this influence. Based on ecological systems theory, this study elucidated the roles of life satisfaction and deviant peer affiliation as sequential mediators of the link between negative parenting and risk-taking behaviors in a sample of 535 Chinese adolescents (47.5% female; M age at Wave 1 = 15.37 years). The results of a three-wave longitudinal study were analyzed via structural equation modeling. Higher negative parenting was associated with more deviant peer affiliation and risk-taking behaviors and lower satisfaction with life. Furthermore, more deviant peer affiliation was associated with more risk-taking behaviors, but life satisfaction was not associated with risk-taking behaviors. The relationship between negative parenting and risk-taking behaviors was mediated by deviant peer affiliation and was sequentially mediated by life satisfaction and deviant peer affiliation. These findings help clarify the mechanisms underlying the association between parenting and risk-taking behaviors in Chinese adolescents. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.