Self-control, Mental Health Problems, and Family Functioning in Adolescence and Young Adulthood: Between-person Differences and Within-person Effects

Yugyun Kim,Jennifer S Richards,Albertine J Oldehinkel

doi:10.1007/s10964-021-01564-3

Abstract

Adolescents’ self-control develops in the context of mental health and family functioning, but it is unclear how the interplay of self-control, mental health, and family functioning unfolds across time within individuals. Separating within-person from between-person effects, random-intercept cross-lagged panel models were applied to adolescents (from ages 11 to 26) from a Dutch cohort (n = 2228, 51% female). Adolescents with low self-control were likely to have mental health problems and poorly functioning families. Although within-person changes in the study variables were not meaningfully associated in a reciprocal manner, changes in self-control and mental health were concurrently associated. This suggests that besides stable connections between self-control, mental health, and family functioning in adolescence and young adulthood, changes in self-control and mental health are developmentally linked as well.

Highlights

Adequate self-control in early life is associated with a vast range of positive long-term outcomes, including physical and mental health, higher education levels, better career opportunities, and financial security (Duckworth, 2011)
The current study aims to fill these gaps by assessing within-person reciprocal associations between self-control, mental health problems, and family functioning among 2228 Dutch adolescents who were followed from the age of 11 to 26
Numerous studies have focused on the associations between family factors and self-control in children and adolescents, and the findings suggest that family environment plays an important role in self-control development

Summary

Introduction

Adequate self-control in early life is associated with a vast range of positive long-term outcomes, including physical and mental health, higher education levels, better career opportunities, and financial security (Duckworth, 2011). Low self-control has been linked to problems in school or work functioning, experiences of psychological distress, and the development of mental health problems (Nedelec & Beaver, 2014). According to the transactional model (Sameroff, 2009, Sameroff & MacKenzie, 2003), self-control development occurs through interactions between individuals and their families. Most empirical findings on associations between self-control, mental health, and family factors are based on between-person approaches such as group-based regression or cross-lagged models. The current study aims to fill these gaps by assessing within-person reciprocal associations between self-control, mental health problems, and family functioning among 2228 Dutch adolescents who were followed from the age of 11 to 26

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion