Abstract
The current study was designed to extend the parenting literature by testing the moderating role of the family’s emotional climate, operationalized with parent-adolescent emotional closeness and adolescent feelings of being overly controlled by parents on the longitudinal associations between parent-driven communication efforts (i.e. parental behavioral control and solicitation of information from their adolescent), adolescent-driven communication efforts (i.e. adolescent disclosure and secrecy) and adolescent psychosocial functioning (i.e. emotional problems, conduct problems, delinquency, and wellbeing). We conducted a series of cross-lagged models controlling for adolescent gender and ethnicity using a two-wave Swedish longitudinal set of self-report data (N = 1515, 51% girls, M age = 13.0 and 14.3 years at T1 and T2, respectively). Multi-group analyses revealed that the negative links between T1 parental control and T2 adolescent delinquency, T1 parental solicitation and T2 adolescent conduct problems and delinquency, and T1 emotional problems and T2 adolescent disclosure were moderated by the family’s emotional climate. When the family’s emotional climate was positive, the parenting strategies had a more positive effect on adolescent psychosocial functioning, and adolescents with emotional problems communicated more openly with their parents. These findings suggest that the relational context in the family is an important protective factor and add specificity to the previously established role of parent-adolescent communication in adolescent psychosocial development. In terms of preventive interventions, strategies to enhance the family’s emotional climate should be considered prior to teaching specific parenting strategies.
Highlights
The current study was designed to extend the parenting literature by testing the moderating role of the family’s emotional climate, operationalized with parent-adolescent emotional closeness and adolescent feelings of being overly controlled by parents on the longitudinal associations between parent-driven communication efforts, adolescent-driven communication efforts and adolescent psychosocial functioning
Time 1 (T1) adolescent disclosure was negatively linked to T2 emotional problems (β = −0.12 p = 0.012) and T2 adolescent delinquency (β = −0.08 p = 0.011)
T1 adolescent secrecy was positively associated with T2 adolescent emotional problems (β = 0.10 p < 0.001), T2 adolescent conduct problems (β = 0.21 p < 0.001) and T2 adolescent delinquency (β = 0.19 p < 0.001) and negatively linked to T2 adolescent wellbeing (β = 0.10 p = 0.012)
Summary
The current study was designed to extend the parenting literature by testing the moderating role of the family’s emotional climate, operationalized with parent-adolescent emotional closeness and adolescent feelings of being overly controlled by parents on the longitudinal associations between parent-driven communication efforts (i.e. parental behavioral control and solicitation of information from their adolescent), adolescent-driven communication efforts (i.e. adolescent disclosure and secrecy) and adolescent psychosocial functioning (i.e. emotional problems, conduct problems, delinquency, and wellbeing). The history of interactions between parents and their children, as well as the goals and attributes that parents bring to their parenting socialization, rest within the context of the family’s emotional climate (Darling and Steinberg 1993; Soenens et al 2019) Embedded within such a context, parents shape their adolescents’ development using different parenting strategies, such as parental behavior control (i.e. Jönköping, Sweden 3 Gothenburg University, Gothenburg, Sweden communicating behavior control through rules and behavioral expectations) and solicitation (i.e. asking questions of adolescents themselves or by talking to their friends) (Dishion and McMahon 1998; Racz and McMahon 2011). Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol investigate the moderating role of adolescents’ perceptions of the family emotional climate, operationalized with adolescents’ perceptions of parent-adolescent emotional closeness and adolescents’ feelings of being overly controlled by parents, in the longitudinal associations between parent-driven communication efforts (i.e. parent control and solicitation), adolescent-driven communication efforts (i.e. adolescent disclosure and secrecy) and adolescent psychosocial functioning (i.e. emotional problems, conduct problems, delinquency and wellbeing). Both parents and their adolescent children actively shape adolescent psychosocial development
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
