Adolescent Emotional Adjustment Research Articles

Relationship between Parent-child Communication, Adolescent Emotional Adjustment and Depression Symptoms

This paper aims to explore the relationship between parent-child communication and adolescent emotional adjustment and depressive symptoms, so as to provide theoretical support and practical guidance for family education and mental health intervention. Studies have shown that good parent-child communication has a positive impact on adolescents' emotional adjustment ability, which can reduce the risk of depressive symptoms. It is found that there is a significant positive correlation between parent-child communication and adolescent emotional adjustment. This means that in the family environment, good parent-child communication is helpful to improve teenagers' emotional adjustment ability and help them better cope with negative emotions. The improvement of emotional adjustment ability can make teenagers keep calm and control their emotions in the face of difficulties, so as to solve problems better. In addition, the study also found that there is a negative correlation between parent-child communication and depressive symptoms, and there is a significant negative correlation between adolescent emotional adjustment and depressive symptoms. This means that good parent-child communication can reduce the risk of adolescent depression. In the face of stress and difficulties, good parent-child communication can help teenagers gain emotional support and understanding, thus reducing the possibility of depressive symptoms.

The Association Between Young Adolescent Emotional Adjustment and Peer Affiliations: Making a Case for Gender Diversity Within Peer Relationships

The current investigation uses longitudinal data to begin to understand the correlates of gender integration and youth emotional adjustment. Participants were 207 adolescents (mean age = 11.11 years, 53% female). The results demonstrated that, when compared to only having gender-segregated peer affiliates, gender-integrated peer affiliates, as well as the transition from gender-segregated to gender-integrated peer affiliations from the beginning to the end of the sixth-grade academic year was associated with significantly higher levels of self-esteem. Descriptive data also indicate that gender segregation was associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms, although the effects on depressive symptomology did not reach traditional levels of statistical significance. The findings highlight the important emotional impact of gender-diverse peer relationships among young adolescents.

Emotion socialization by parents and friends: Links with adolescent emotional adjustment

Emotion socialization influences adolescent emotional adjustment. Friendships provide a venue for emotion socialization, yet little research has compared emotion socialization processes with parents versus friends and how they correspond to adolescent outcomes. The present study examined parent and friend socialization of negative emotions in relation to adolescents' emotional coherence, emotion regulation, and internalizing symptoms. Thirty parent-adolescent-friend triads (13–18 years old; 60% female, 40% male) from the community participated. Study variables were measured with a multi-method approach, including observational data, heart rate variability, and self-report. Parents and friends evidenced disparate patterns of socialization responses and unique ties to adolescent outcomes, which has important clinical applications. Friends, as well as parents, are important and distinct socialization agents within the developmental context of adolescence.

Parent relationships and adolescents' depression and social anxiety: Indirect associations via emotional sensitivity to rejection threat

One prominent theory has proposed that rejection and other negative parenting practices prompt children's emotional sensitivity to the threat of rejection, often referred to as rejection sensitivity (RS). This emotional sensitivity is thought to result in social and emotional maladjustment. In the present study, we tested this model of parenting, emotional sensitivity, and maladjustment with 659 early adolescents (aged 9–13 years). The findings confirmed that adolescents who reported more negative parenting practices had elevated depression and social anxiety symptoms, heightened levels of RS, and more elevated sadness and withdrawal responses to rejection threat. In a final structural equation model, RS and withdrawal were uniquely associated with depressive symptoms, and RS, sadness, and withdrawal were uniquely associated with social anxiety. Moreover, negative parenting had significant associations with symptoms both directly and indirectly via RS, sadness, and/or withdrawal, with the effects mostly direct for depressive symptoms and mostly indirect for social anxiety symptoms. Interparental conflict was also implicated in adolescents' RS, reactions to rejection threat, and symptoms, but these correlational effects were almost entirely indirect via parenting practices. An alternate model of depression and anxiety predicting sensitivity to rejection threat was tested and found to be equally viable. The findings provide a more nuanced understanding of the links between rejection and adolescent emotional adjustment.

Differential Associations Between Domains of Sibling Conflict and Adolescent Emotional Adjustment

Issues of equality and fairness and invasion of the personal domain, 2 previously identified topic areas of adolescent sibling conflict (N. Campione-Barr & J. G. Smetana, 2010), were examined in 145 dyads (Mfirst-born = 14.97, SD = 1.69 years; Msecond-born = 12.20, SD = 1.90 years) for their differential effects on youths' emotional adjustment over 1 year. The impact of internalizing symptoms on later sibling conflicts also was tested. Invasion of the personal domain conflicts were associated with higher levels of anxiety and lower self-esteem 1 year later, whereas Equality and Fairness issues were associated with greater depressed mood. Conversely, greater internalizing symptomatology and lower self-esteem predicted more of both types of conflict. Moderating influences of gender and ordinal position were also examined.

Motivation and Perceived Control in Early Adolescent Friendships

Motivation is assumed to influence behaviors via perceived agency over goal pursuits, but empirical research integrating motivation and action-control processes in social development is close to nonexistent. We applied this perspective to the study of early adolescent friendships by examining motivation for and perceived control (ability and effort) over establishing and maintaining friendships in association with adolescents’ emotional adjustment, friend-reported friendship closeness, and peer-reported social adjustment. Participants were 648 early adolescents (12-14 years). As expected, intrinsic friendship motivation was associated with perceived ability and effort in the self as well as positive adjustment, whereas extrinsic motivation was associated with relying on others in friendship tasks and poor adjustment. Motivation was also directly related to adjustment and the observed associations differed by gender. The integrated motivation-action control model was supported in terms of adolescent emotional adjustment and friendship quality.

Parenting and Late Adolescent Emotional Adjustment: Mediating Effects of Discipline and Gender

Research suggests that parenting styles are related to the types of discipline parents utilize and that the coupling of parenting styles and discipline techniques are related to child outcomes. Although extant research examines the effects of parenting styles and discipline on child and early adolescent adjustment, less is known about adjustment in late adolescents, also described as emerging adults. Thus, the current study investigated the relationships among parenting styles (e.g., authoritative, authoritarian, permissive), discipline strategies (e.g., non-violent discipline, psychological aggression, physical assault), and emerging adult emotional adjustment (e.g., self-esteem, depression, and anxiety). The sample consisted of 526 participants ranging in age from 18 to 22 years. Results were analyzed with structural equation modeling and suggest that, although perceived parenting styles and discipline are both correlated with emerging adult emotional adjustment, perceived parenting is associated with emerging adult emotional adjustment for females but not males when examined simultaneously with perceived discipline. This finding demonstrates the importance of examining the direct and indirect relationships in the context of gender dyads.

Perceived Parenting, Positive and Negative Perceptions of Parents, and Late Adolescent Emotional Adjustment.

Many studies have established that warm, authoritative parenting is associated with positive adjustment in children and adolescents. Fewer studies, however, have examined the potential mechanisms driving this relationship. The current study explores the effects of late adolescents' positive and negative perceptions of their parents in the association between perceived parenting and late adolescent emotional adjustment (depression, anxiety, and self-esteem). The sample consisted of 151 males and 324 females ranging in age from 18- to 22-years. Data were analysed with structural equation modeling. Results of the study suggested that perceived parenting, positive and negative perceptions of parents, and emotional adjustment as reported by late adolescents all are correlated significantly. The effects of perceived parenting on late adolescents' emotional adjustment, however, were not statistically significant when analysed simultaneously with late adolescents' positive and negative perceptions of parents. Also, the relationship between late adolescents' positive and negative perceptions of parents and late adolescent emotional adjustment became non-significant when examining father relationships. Overall, the importance of considering parenting in the context of parent and adolescents' sex as well as other variables is emphasised.

Effects of violence exposure and daily stressors on psychological outcomes in urban adolescents

Relations between adolescent violence exposure, daily stress, and psychological outcome were examined. Parent/adolescent dyads (N = 80) completed questionnaires, which included parent ratings of adolescent externalizing and internalizing problems and adolescent self-ratings of emotional adjustment. Severity of daily stress moderated the relation between levels of violence exposure and extent of adolescent externalizing and internalizing problems. The relation was significant at higher levels of daily stress, but nonsignificant at lower levels of stress. In contrast, daily stress did not emerge as a moderator in the relation between violence exposure and adolescent emotional adjustment. Results suggest that adolescents experiencing high levels of violence exposure and daily stress should be considered at great risk for poor psychological outcome.

Marital Status, Marital Process, and Parental Resources in Predicting Adolescents’ Emotional Adjustment

This study examined the relationship between adolescent emotional adjustment and the family environment (i.e., family status, family process, and parental resources). This was done by way of multilevel analyses, with a sample of 2,636 parent-child couples of both intact and divorced families. The results indicated that adolescent emotional adjustment was clearly based on the family as well as on the individual. We found support for the hypothesis that growing up both in postdivorce families and in intact families with a low marital quality related negatively to adolescent emotional adjustment. Our hypothesis that parental resources, in the form of parental support, parent-adolescent relationship, and parental psychological health, partly mediate the negative association between low marital quality and divorce on one hand and youngsters’ adjustment on the other hand was also confirmed. Growing up in postdivorce families was especially detrimental for the emotional adjustment of girls.

Discrepancies in Adolescents' and Parents' Perceptions of Family Functioning and Adolescent Emotional Adjustment

Discrepancies between adolescents' and their parents' perceptions of family functioning were examined in a sample of 74 sixth-and seventh-grade students and their parents during the fall and the spring of the school year The effect of both the adolescent's gender and the gender of the parent on differences in perceptions was explored. In addition, the relation between discrepancies in perceptions of family functioning and adolescent emotional adjustment was examined. Results indicated that girls and boys perceived lower levels of family cohesion than did their parents. Girls also perceived lower levels of family adjustment than did both parents. Not surprisingly, mothers' and fathers' perceptions of family functioning were more similar to one another than the adolescents' perceptions (especially boys') were to either parent. Discrepancies in perceptions of family functioning also were related to the adolescents' reported levels of depressive symptomatology and anxiety, particularly for girls.