The longitudinal relationship between bullying victimization and internalizing problems among early adolescents: A cross-lagged panel network analysis

Self-esteem as a mediator in the longitudinal relationship between dysfunctional parenting and peer attachment in early adolescence

Background: Previous studies have revealed an association between maternal depressive/anxious symptoms and children's tics. However, the longitudinal relationships between these symptoms remain unclear. We examined the longitudinal relationships between maternal depressive/anxious symptoms and children's tic frequency in early adolescence with a population-based sample.Methods: The participants consisted of 3,171 children and their mothers from the Tokyo Teen Cohort (TTC) study, a population-representative longitudinal study that was launched in Tokyo in 2012. Maternal depressive/anxious symptoms and children's tics were examined using self-report questionnaires at the ages of 10 (time 1, T1) and 12 (time 2, T2). A cross-lagged model was used to explore the relationships between maternal depressive/anxious symptoms and children's tic frequency.Results: Higher levels of maternal depressive/anxious symptoms at T1 were related to an increased children's tic frequency at T2 (β = 0.06, p < 0.001). Furthermore, more frequent children's tics at T1 were positively related to maternal depressive/anxious symptoms at T2 (β = 0.06, p < 0.001).Conclusions: These findings suggest a longitudinal bidirectional relationship between maternal depressive/anxious symptoms and children's tic frequency in early adolescence that may exacerbate each other over time and possibly create a vicious cycle. When an early adolescent has tics, it might be important to identify and treat related maternal depressive/anxious symptoms.

The impact of alcohol-related violence on individuals and society continues to receive attention from both media and policy makers. However, the longitudinal relationship between alcohol consumption and violence is unclear, with findings from prospective studies producing mixed results. The current study utilized Australian data from the International Youth Development Study to examine longitudinal relationships between alcohol consumption and severe interpersonal violence across the developmental periods of early adolescence to late adolescence/emerging adulthood. The full sample comprised 849 adolescents (53.8 % female) who had been followed up over a 5 year period, from Grade 7 secondary school (age 13) until Grade 11 secondary school (age 17). Cross-lagged path analysis was used to examine reciprocal relationships between alcohol consumption and interpersonal violence; analyses controlled for a range of covariates considered to be common risk factors for both behaviors. Alcohol use during early and mid adolescence was found to predict violence 2 years later, whereas a bi-directional relationship between adolescent heavy episodic drinking and violence was observed. Some of these relationships were not significant when covariates such as family conflict and affiliation with antisocial and drug using friends were included in the models. These findings suggest that risk processes begin in late childhood or very early adolescence; efforts to reduce one problem behavior are likely to reduce the other. Further, the role that social and family contexts have in influencing the relationships between alcohol use and interpersonal violence should be considered in future research to better inform preventive efforts.

Despite growing concerns regarding the development of gaming disorder symptoms among adolescents, the longitudinal relationship between school factors and gaming disorder symptoms remains far from being fully understood. This two-year longitudinal study examined the relationship between school climate perceptions, academic achievement, and gaming disorder symptoms among three distinct demographic cohorts: preadolescents (n = 1513; 46.9% girls, Mage = 10.64 years, SD = 0.56), early adolescents (n = 1771; 48.3% girls, Mage = 13.54 years, SD = 0.70), and late adolescents (n = 2385; 50.1% girls, Mage = 16.41 years, SD = 0.59). A four-wave study was conducted (six months apart) using random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs) to separate the within-person (state level) from the between-person (trait level) effects. The results obtained from the RI-CLPMs indicated that fluctuations in school climate perceptions negatively predicted subsequent changes in gaming disorder symptoms among preadolescents at the within-person level, but not among early and late adolescents. Fluctuations relating to gaming disorder symptoms also negatively predicted subsequent changes regarding academic achievement in late adolescents, but not in preadolescents and early adolescents. The effect of school-related factors on gaming disorder symptoms varies across different developmental stages. While preadolescents may represent a particularly susceptible subgroup for gaming disorder in terms of being predicted by their school environment, late adolescents appear to be more vulnerable to predictors of gaming disorder symptoms. The current study also discusses the implications of school-wide programs aimed at improving school climate and preventing the development of gaming disorder symptoms during key developmental periods.

Distinct trajectories of depression symptoms in early and middle adolescence: Preliminary evidence from longitudinal network analysis

Background: Previous studies have revealed an association between maternal depressive/anxious symptoms and children’s tics. However, the longitudinal relationships between these symptoms remain unclear. We examined the longitudinal relationships between maternal depressive/anxious symptoms and children’s tic frequency in early adolescence with a population-based sample. Methods: The participants consisted of 3,171 children and their mothers from the Tokyo Teen Cohort (TTC) study, a population-representative longitudinal study that was launched in Tokyo in 2012. Maternal depressive/anxious symptoms and children’s tics were examined using self-report questionnaires at the ages of 10 (time 1, T1) and 12 (time 2, T2). A cross-lagged model was used to explore the relationships between maternal depressive/anxious symptoms and children’s tic frequency. Results: Higher levels of maternal depressive/anxious symptoms at T1 were related to an increased children’s tic frequency at T2 (β = .06, p < .001). Furthermore, more frequent children’s tics at T1 were positively related to maternal depressive/anxious symptoms at T2 (β = .06, p < .001). Conclusions: These findings suggest a longitudinal bidirectional relationship between maternal depressive/anxious symptoms and children’s tic frequency in early adolescence that may exacerbate each other over time and possibly create a vicious cycle. When an early adolescent has tics, it might be important to identify and treat related maternal depressive/anxious symptoms.

Despite evidence indicating that social mindfulness may be a precondition for both prosocial and aggressive behavior, there remains a limited understanding of how the bidirectional dynamics between them unfold over time. Framed in the developmental cascade model, this study examined the longitudinal reciprocal relations between social mindfulness and these two distinct social behaviors among early adolescents by disentangling within-person and between-person effects. A total of 1087 Chinese early adolescents (48.7% girls; Mage = 11.35 ± 0.49 years at Time 1) participated in a three-wave longitudinal study with about four-month assessment intervals. The random-intercept cross-lagged panel model indicated that, at the within-person level, social mindfulness and prosocial behavior positively predicted each other over time. Furthermore, fluctuations in social mindfulness were found to negatively predict changes in aggressive behavior at subsequent time points, but the reverse was not true, suggesting a unidirectional influence. A similar pattern was found between social mindfulness and reactive aggressive behavior, but no significant bidirectional effects emerged between social mindfulness and proactive aggressive behavior. These findings highlight the role of social mindfulness in shaping early adolescents' social behavior over time, thus providing insights for more targeted and effective interventions to foster prosocial behavior and prevent aggressive behavior.

Objective The purpose of this study was to examine the bidirectional relation between mobile phone dependency (MPD) and self-regulated learning (SRL) of early Korean adolescents in 4th, 6th and 8th grade, while taking into account gender differences. Methods The study made use of panel data from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Study (KCYPS), and three waves of data collected from 2,264 adolescents were analyzed by means of autoregressive cross-lagged modeling. Results The results can be summarized as follows. Firstly, MPD and SRL were consistently stable for adolescents in 4th, 6th to 8th grades. Secondly, a bidirectional relations between MPD and SRL were confirmed. In other words, there was a significant influence of a high level of MPD on a subsequent low level of SRL, and the high level of SRL also had a significant effect on the lower level of MPD across time. According to multi-group analysis, no gender differences were found in the relations between two constructs during the studied period. Conclusion Findings highlighted not only the necessary media usage education but also parenting intervention strategies may help early adolescents to be prevented from negative effects of media usage and to enhance self-regulated learning ability. Based on the results, more implications were also discussed. Keywords: early adolescents, mobile phone dependency, self-regulated learning, autoregressive cross-lagged effect, gender difference

Longitudinal correlates of bullying victimization among Chinese early adolescents: A cross-lagged panel network analysis

The transition to adolescence is a critical phase for shaping child behavior. Previous studies have revealed the correlation between perceived social support and children’s social behaviors. However, the longitudinal causal relationship between perceived social support and social behavior remains unclear. This study aimed to reveal the longitudinal, bidirectional relationship between perceived social support (from parents, peers, and teachers) and social behaviors (i.e., prosocial behavior, aggressive behavior, and social withdrawal) and the potential mediating role of social self-concept. 577 Chinese children in preadolescence and early adolescence participated in the study at three time points. Results indicated that prosocial and aggressive behavior predicted subsequent perceived social support from peers and teachers. Social withdrawal negatively predicted subsequent perceived social support from parents, peers, and teachers. In turn, only perceived peer support marginally and negatively predicted subsequent aggressive behavior. Social self-concept mediated the effect of social behaviors on perceived social support, the effect of perceived parent support on social behaviors, and the effect of perceived peer support on negative social behaviors. No significant difference was found in the above associations between children in preadolescence and early adolescence. The study highlights the significance of children’s self-evaluation and self-cognition in promoting their perceived social support and adjusting their social behaviors, which provides implications for family- and school-based education and interventions.

This study employed a cross-lagged panel network model to examine the longitudinal relationships between problems of sleep, internalizing and externalizing problems in adolescents. This study gathered data at four different time points (T1, T2, T3, and T4) for students enrolled in Grades 7 and 8, with an interval of approximately six months between each time point. The present sample comprised 1,281 Chinese adolescents, including 636 girls, with a mean age of 12.73 years (SD = 0.68) at baseline. Cross-lagged panel network modeling was used to estimate longitudinal relationships between symptoms at adjacent time points. Network replicability was assessed by comparing the T1→T2 network with the T2→T3 network and the T2→T3 network with the T3→T4 network. The anxious/depressed symptom emerged as the most predictive of other symptoms and were also the most prospectively influenced by other symptoms. Cross-cluster edges predominantly flowed from internalizing and externalizing symptoms to sleep problems. Additionally, externalizing symptoms exhibited distinct patterns: aggression predicted more sleep and internalizing symptoms, whereas delinquent behavior predicted fewer of these issues. These findings suggest that mental health problems contribute to later sleep disturbances, with internalizing symptoms playing a central role in adolescent psychopathology.

An important feature of individuals’ thinking and behavior is that they are future-oriented. Future planning, a process that involves constructing plans and realizing these plans, has been extensively studied by researchers according to two dimensions, i.e., exploration and commitment. Literature indicates that future planning is particularly important for many aspects of adolescents’ current and later adjustment. In recent years, with the inspiration of the notions of Developmental Contextualism, researchers have become increasingly interested in adolescents’ future planning in specific cultural and/or social contexts, especially in those contemporary societies with rapid social and economic changes. However, the overwhelming majority of the research in this area was conducted in Western cultures and research on how contemporary Chinese adolescents plan for their future has been rare. Methodologically, existing research findings were mainly based on studies of cross-sectional design, resulting in very limited information available about the developmental changes of future planning with age. Besides, family is the more proximal context that is salient for adolescents’ development, in what ways that parenting behaviors influence adolescents’ future planning and whether the associations between parenting and future planning are mediated by individual characteristics such as autonomy are important questions of interest. The present study was designed to examine the development of future planning, the concurrent and longitudinal relationships between future planning and parenting behaviors, and the possible mediating role of behavioral autonomy in the associations with a sample of Chinese adolescents. Using a short-term longitudinal design, a total of 948 adolescents (499 males, 449 females) of grades 8 and 10 attending junior and senior high schools respectively in Shandong province of China were investigated during a period of one and a half years. At Time 1, those adolescents completed a series of questionnaires assessing future planning (i.e., exploration and commitment) concerning education and occupation, parenting behaviors (i.e., acceptance/involvement and strictness/supervision), and behavioral autonomy. A year and a half later, at time 2, they completed the future planning questionnaire again. The main findings were as follows: (1) the developmental patterns of future planning for education and occupation varied between early and middle adolescents. While middle adolescents reported increased exploration for education with age, no significant changes were observed for early adolescents. Both early and middle adolescents reported no significant changes in their commitment to future education, and their exploration for and commitment to future occupation between Time 1 and Time 2. Early adolescents reportedmore exploration for and commitment to occupation than middle adolescents at both Time 1 and Time 2. (2) At Time 1, for both early and middle adolescents, parental acceptance/involvement was strongly associated with future planning (exploration and commitment) concerning education and occupation in a positive way, whereas parental strictness/supervision only positively predicted adolescent exploration for and commitment to future education. Even after controlling for future planning at Time 1, parental acceptance/involvement still positively predicted future planning concerning education and occupation at Time 2; parental strictness/supervision did not predict adolescent future planning longitudinally. (3) Adolescents’ behavioral autonomy served to partially mediate the concurrent and longitudinal associations between parental acceptance/involvement and future planning concerning education and occupation. The results demonstrated that the development of Chinese adolescents’ future planning was shaped by the specific culture and age-graded tasks, which further supports the notion that future planning is the process of socialization.

SYNOPSIS Objective. This article examined two-wave longitudinal paths among maternal self-efficacy, maternal warmth, and early adolescents’ prosocial behavior. Design . Participants were 194 Italian mother/child dyads from 9–13 years at the first assessment and 12–15 years at the second assessment. Using a two-wave longitudinal design, the present study tested cross-lagged paths among maternal self-efficacy, warmth, and early adolescents’ prosocial behavior controlling for the stability of these variables and their concurrent associations. Results . Maternal warmth mediated the link between maternal self-efficacy and adolescents’ prosocial behavior, and bi-directional effects between maternal self-efficacy and maternal warmth were found. Conclusions . These findings support a parent-driven model in the promotion of prosocial behaviors across early adolescence and a general need to consider simultaneously parental cognitions (maternal self-efficacy) and actions (maternal warmth) in explaining adolescents’ prosocial behaviors. Implications for parenting program interventions are discussed.

Although addictive internet use (AIU) and depression frequently co-occur in early adolescents, the mechanism accounting for their co-occurrence remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to clarify the longitudinal reciprocal relationships between AIU and depression in early adolescents. We employed a random intercept cross-lagged model to examine the longitudinal reciprocal relationships between AIU and depression in a sample of the early adolescent population comprising 1361 children (aged 12–13 at baseline) over the two-year study period. Our results revealed no significant longitudinal reciprocal relationship between AIU and depression, suggesting that AIU was neither the cause nor the result of depression in early adolescence. The random intercepts of AIU and depression were significantly correlated. Additionally, the concurrent relationships between these two conditions were significant at all time points. These results indicate that early adolescents with more severe AIU had more severe depression. We also demonstrate that the same reciprocal patterns of AIU and depression were observed in males and females. Therefore, our results suggest that, during the early adolescent period, AIU does not influence the severity of depression a year later and vice versa and that there are common causes for both conditions.

The comorbidity mechanisms between ADHD symptoms and Internet addiction are not yet clear, and network analysis provides a new perspective for clarifying this research question. Therefore, this study employed a cross-lagged panel network model to examine how specific symptom levels of ADHD and Internet addiction interact. A total of 732 Chinese adolescents (55.6% girls, Mage = 13.95 years, SD = 1.55) completed assessments at three time points spaced six months apart. Between 4.51 and 6.83% of participants showed severe Internet issues, and 8.06-9.97% fell into the ADHD abnormal range across the three time points. The results of the contemporaneous network indicated that the bridge symptom at all three-time points was "Inattention". The results of the temporal network showed: (1) the core symptoms responsible for the comorbidity mostly belong to ADHD symptoms; (2) the comorbidity mechanisms change over time, with the most predictive bridge symptom being "Hyperactivity" in the T1 to T2 network, and changing to "Inattention" in the T2 to T3 network. In addition, "Excessive use" was the most vulnerable symptom. These findings suggest that hyperactivity in early adolescence and inattention at later stages may serve as temporal risk indicators for Internet addiction, and that interventions targeting these symptoms could be worthy of further investigation.