Parent-adolescent Interactions Research Articles

Through each other's eyes: initial results and protocol for the co-design of an observational measure of adolescent-parent interaction using first-person perspective

BackgroundCurrent observational methods to understand adolescent-parent interaction are limited in terms of ecological and content validity. We outline initial results and a protocol for future work from a programme of work to: (1) establish a new method for data capture of adolescent-parent interaction at home using wearable cameras and; (2) develop a new relevant and comprehensive observational micro-coding scheme. In Part 1, we report our completed preliminary work, comprised of an initial scoping review, and public engagement work. In Part 2, we present a protocol for the development of the new measure.MethodsPart 1—We searched Pubmed for existing observational measures of adolescent-parent interaction for the scoping review. We also undertook public engagement work utilising a mobile research van, taken to multiple locations around Bristol, UK to engage with a variety of populations through interactive methods. Part 2—Our protocol describes plans for: (1) A systematic review of the psychometric properties of observational measures of adolescent-parent interaction; (2) Focussed public engagement workshops; (3) Harmonisation of information from existing coding schemes and literature with information from public engagement with adolescents and parents; (4) A pilot study to assess the acceptability and feasibility of the method; (5) Development of a coding scheme in consultation with expert and lay panels, and through real-life application to recorded videos from a pilot sample.ResultsScoping review: we identified 21 adolescent-parent observational schemes, of which eight used micro-coding and 13 used globalcoding schemes. The majority of micro-coding schemes were not developed specifically for adolescents. Most studies used conflict or problem-solving tasks, which may not adequately capture positive adolescent-parent interactions. The mobile van event received views from 234 young people and/or parents. Families were positive about taking part in research using headcams. “Trust” and “understanding” were most frequently reported as important adolescent-parent relationship constructs.ConclusionsThis work represents the first attempt to truly co-design a method to assess parenting in adolescence. We hope to develop an observational measure using novel technological methods that can be used across a range of research and therapeutic settings.

How does work affect fathers' daily interaction with adolescents? An expanded self‐regulation perspective

SummaryThe management of the daily rhythm of work and childrearing, two central responsibilities of working fathers, has received limited research attention. Drawing from an expanded self‐regulation perspective, this study seeks to understand the within‐person depletion and compensation mechanisms that explain how fathers' daily work experiences spillover to influence their next‐day parenting interactions. We also posit that actual childrearing support by mothers and its unavailability may shape fathers' day‐to‐day caregiving rhythm by injecting resources and/or cuing demands for father parenting involvement. Using daily triadic data (N = 631 within‐person observations) from 96 fathers, mothers and their adolescent children in the United States, we found that the lagged relationship between fathers' negative work events and next‐day father–adolescent conflict was mediated by fathers' psychological distress. In addition, we found that negative work events were associated with increased father–adolescent routine activities the next day via time‐based work–family conflict, but only when mothers worked the next day. We further found that negative work events were associated with decreased father–adolescent interactive activities the next day via psychological distress, but only when mothers provided less routine care than normal the next day. Our study portrays fathers juggling work and parenting as a sequenced balancing act. Importantly, incorporating mothers' daily work status and routine parent–adolescent interactions enriches our understanding of fathers' daily work‐to‐parenting spillover process.

Factors Affecting the Resilience of Adolescent Victims of Cyberbullying in Dual-Earner Families

Adolescents are the age group that uses social media the most and is the age group most vulnerable to becoming perpetrators or victims of cyberbullying. This research generally aims to analyze differences based on region, relationship, and the influence of parent-adolescent interactions and coping strategies on adolescent resilience. This research uses a quantitative approach and cross-sectional study design using survey and questionnaire methods. Sampling was carried out using purposive sampling with a total sample of 98 adolescents. This research was located in Bogor Regency and City, West Java. The results of the independent t-test showed that there are significant differences in adolescent resilience based on region. The results of the correlation test show that adolescent age has a significant negative correlation with the dimensions of self-acceptance. Family size has a negative correlation with parent-adolescent interactions. Correlation test results show that parent-adolescent interaction and coping strategies significantly correlate with adolescent resilience. The results of regression tests show that region, mother's education, parent-adolescent interactions, and coping strategies significantly positively affect adolescent resilience. The parents-adolescent interaction, coping strategies, and resilience in adolescents in this study are mostly still in the moderate category, so they still need to be improved.

The Associations Between Parental Phubbing, Adolescent Phubbing, and Adolescents' Adjustments: A Cross-Lagged Panel Network Analysis.

A growing body of research indicates that phubbing can negatively influence adolescent development, it is not clear how perceived parental phubbing, adolescent phubbing, and adolescents' adjustment problems concurrently relate to each other at the dimension level. This study conducted the contemporaneous network analyses and cross-lagged network analysis to examine the distinct relationships between the various dimensions of perceived father phubbing, perceived mother phubbing, adolescent phubbing and adolescent's adjustment problems. A total of 1447 Chinese students (60.5% females; Mean age = 16.15, SD = 0.65) completed a survey at two-time points. The results of the contemporaneous network analyses indicated that perceived father/mother ignorance have the strongest links with the dimensions of adolescent phubbing and adolescents' adjustment problems, suggesting that adolescents who reported high levels of perceived father/mother ignorance are more likely to concurrently face other issues and thus should be a primary focus of concern. The cross-lagged panel network analysis revealed that academic burnout is the primary catalyst in this dynamic network, which underscores a child-driven effect within the network. This emphasizes the importance of addressing adolescent academic burnout as a pivotal intervention point, both to alleviate phubbing in parent-adolescent interactions and to tackle adolescents' adjustment problems.

Relationship between positive parenting and adolescents' depressive symptoms: Evidence from a Chinese research survey.

Adolescents often carry their depression well into their adulthood. This creates perpetual difficulties for their family and society. Research on the relationship between positive parenting and adolescent depressive symptoms is rare. The protective effect of positive parenting on adolescent depressive symptoms also remains underexplored. Parents are a vital source of feedback that shapes adolescents' self-view in crucial ways. This study examines the latent relationships between four factors related to positive parenting and adolescent depressive symptoms. Using data from the Chinese Family Panel Studies (CFPS), Stata MP 17.0 was used for preliminary data processing and descriptive statistics. The structural equation model (SEM) was adopted to test the seven proposed hypotheses. The study participants were 2,816 adolescents (52.34% male). The SEM showed that positive communication and parental praise can directly reduce depressive symptoms in adolescents (path coefficients of -0.24 and -0.13 [p < .001], respectively). Additionally, both positive communication and positive parent-adolescent interactions can reduce adolescents' depressive symptoms by heightening the intermediate factor of parental praise (path coefficients of 0.30 and 0.44 [p < .001], respectively). Conversely, positive parent-adolescent interactions did not negatively affect adolescents' depressive symptoms, as we hypothesized. High level of positive parenting negatively predicts the level of depressive symptoms among adolescents. Specifically, positive communication, positive parent-adolescent communication, and parental praise are the main protective factors related to positive parenting for adolescents' depressive symptoms.

Generating mutual support in multifamily therapy to promote father involvement and family communication quality of Chinese families of adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: A qualitative study.

Previous studies have suggested the negative impacts of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on parent-adolescent interactions. Yet engaging parents, particularly the fathers, to participate in family-based interventions has been challenging in Chinese contexts given the traditional concerns about keeping the family's "face" and the influence of affiliate stigma. Empirical evidence supports multifamily therapy as an effective modality for parental engagement. This study explores the role of mutual support in promoting parental engagement and family communication quality of Chinese families of adolescents with ADHD. Inclusion criteria of the study were (a) Chinese family of at least one adolescent child having an ADHD diagnosis, (b) the adolescent child was aged between 11 and 15 years, and (c) the family participated in a multifamily therapy program. Families who had not completed a multifamily therapy program were excluded. Fourteen Chinese families of adolescents with ADHD who participated in a pilot multifamily therapy program from June 2017 to September 2018 were recruited for this qualitative study. Photo-elicited parent focus groups and photo-elicited individual interviews with adolescents were conducted. The thematic analysis revealed that a low level of hierarchy in the therapist-client relationship contributed to the building of mutual support among the families in the therapy process. The mutual support was found to play a key role in promoting acceptance, father involvement, and open communication within families of adolescents with ADHD. Discussion was conducted on the importance of the nonexpert stance of the therapist for promoting mutual support among Chinese families in a multifamily therapy process.

Prediction of Social Media Addiction Among Female Adolescents Based on Parent-Adolescent Conflict and Parental Psychological Control

Background: Conflictual parent-adolescent interactions and parental psychological control to limit adolescents’ activities make them avoid their parents and then try to fill this emotional gap in other settings such as social media and networks. Objectives: The present study aimed to predict social media addiction among female adolescents based on parent-adolescent conflict and parental psychological control. Materials and Methods: Participants in this study were 412 female adolescents in Ahvaz city, who were divided into two groups: (1) with social media addiction (206 persons); and (2) without social media addiction (206 persons). The participants completed the Social Media Addiction Scale, Parent-Adolescent Conflict Scale, and Psychological Control Scale-Youth Self-Report. The data were analyzed with SPSS 25 software. Results: Discriminant analysis showed that the levels of parent-adolescent conflict (conflict with the father and mother) and parental psychological control were significantly different between the two groups of adolescents (i.e., with and without social media addiction). Furthermore, parent-adolescent conflict and parental psychological control, either alone or together, could predict social media addiction among adolescents. Conclusions: Conflict between parents and adolescents and parental psychological control can gradually push adolescents toward addiction to social media. Accordingly, it is important to pay attention to parent-adolescent conflict and parental psychological control in order to prevent social media addiction among adolescents.

Facial expressions in adolescent-parent interactions and mental health: A proof-of-concept study.

Parent-child relationships are hotbeds of emotion and play a key role in mental health. The present proof-of-concept study examined facial expressions of emotion during adolescent-parent interactions and links with internalizing mental health symptoms. Neutral, negative, and positive facial expressions were objectively measured in 28 parent-adolescent dyads during three 10-min dyadic interactions. Internalizing mental health symptoms were measured using anxiety and depressive symptom questionnaires. Data were analyzed using actor-partner interdependence modeling. Results revealed that higher levels of (a) adolescents' neutral facial expressions as well as (b) parents' negative facial expressions were associated with higher levels of adolescents' mental health symptoms. Findings did not support a robust link between (c) positive expressions and mental health symptoms. Together, these results demonstrate the utility of facial expressions of emotion during parent-child interactions as behavioral correlates of adolescents' internalizing mental health symptoms, highlight the need for replication with larger samples, and suggest directions for future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Personality traits between parent-adolescent interaction in anorexia nervosa at onset: Control-case study

The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between personality traits of parents and their daughters with anorexia nervosa (AN) by a case-control study. Fifty adolescent girls with AN (G-AN) and 50 control girls without pathology (GC) were measured with the “Junior Temperament and Character Inventory” and the “Eating Disorder Inventory-2“, and both parents. The G-AN and the CG did not differ in personality traits. Both parents of G-AN showed significant differences in temperamental and character traits compared to both parents in CG. In the G-AN, complementary relationships were found in mothers’ harm avoidance daughters cooperativeness and fantasy, while in fathers and daughters associations between reward dependence, persistence and self-directedness were found. The only scale that discriminated between the two groups was drive for thinness for G-AN and CG (classification: 74.7%). Identifying personality traits of parents and their daughters at the onset of AN will allow improvements in the intervention.

Testing the acceptability and feasibility of video observational methodology to measure parent-adolescent communication and interaction

BackgroundExisting research has shown that the parent-adolescent relationship and its associated communication and interaction styles are important for adolescent development and outcomes. Measuring parent-adolescent communication and interaction using self-report methods has substantial research limitations. Video observational methodologies offer a novel and more objective approach to measuring parent-adolescent communication and interaction from the point of view of participants. This study aims to explore the feasibility and acceptability of this methodology, and analysis using automated coding software in an urbanized context.MethodsThis study recruited parent-adolescent pairs in Soweto, South Africa which included 11–15-year-old adolescents and their biological parents. Parent-adolescent communication and interactions were measured using novel video observational portable head cameras called “Teencams”. Feasibility was evaluated by testing three observational game tasks (Matching pairs card game, Jenga and Charades) to stimulate communication and interaction between 16 parent-adolescent pairs, and the Teencam's ability to record video and audio content. Acceptability was explored using one-on-one interviews with the parents (n = 14), on whether they found the Teencam comfortable to wear, whether the parents believed their adolescents acted naturally, and which observational game tasks were feasible during their interactions. The videos were analysed using automated coding software called FaceReader which detects and codes basic facial expressions.ResultsThe Teencam methodology was found to be feasible and acceptable amongst parent-adolescent pairs in Soweto, South Africa. The Matching pairs card game stimulated excellent interaction and communication with good video and audio quality. Some feasibility limitations were identified in the operations (switching on/off and starting recording), the ability of the device to cope with the movement of the participants, and the lighting conditions of the room, all of which resulted in poor coding and analytic output from FaceReader. Refinements and adjustments were made to the methodological protocol by improving the head cameras and lighting conditions and refining the Matching pairs card game, which resulted in improved analytic output from FaceReader.ConclusionBased on these findings, a methodological protocol was developed to measure parent-adolescent interaction and communication in an urban setting. The unique contribution of this research lies in its potential to lead to improved methodologies for measuring parent-adolescent communication and interactions.

Observed Parenting and Adolescent Brain Structure

ABSTRACT Parent-youth relationships and parenting are critically important to adolescents’ development. The present study examined associations between parenting behaviors (which included observed parent emotion expression and negative and positive parenting behaviors during a parent-adolescent interaction) and adolescent brain structure, and sex differences in associations, in 66 12–14 year-olds. The study found that 1) among all adolescents in the sample, greater parent negative emotion expression in parent-youth interactions was associated with greater adolescent gray matter volume (GMV) in the left hippocampus, 2) parent positive emotion expression was not associated with adolescent GMV, 3) several associations differed by sex. These findings suggest that parenting is important for adolescent brain structure and future work should consider this by sex.

Sticky criticism? Affective and neural responses to parental criticism and praise in adolescents with depression.

Parent-adolescent interactions, particularly parental criticism and praise, have previously been identified as factors relevant to self-concept development and, when negative, to adolescent depression. Yet, whether adolescents with depression show aberrant emotional and neural reactivity to parental criticism and praise is understudied. Adolescents with depression (n = 20) and healthy controls (n = 59) received feedback supposedly provided by their mother or father in the form of negative ('untrustworthy'), neutral ('chaotic'), and positive ('respectful') personality evaluations while in an MRI-scanner. After each feedback word, adolescents reported their mood. Beforehand, adolescents had rated whether these personality evaluations matched their self-views. In both groups, mood decreased after criticism and increased after praise. Adolescents with depression reported blunted mood responses after praise, whereas there were no mood differences after criticism. Neuroimaging analyses revealed that adolescents with depression (v. healthy controls) exhibited increased activity in response to criticism in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, temporal pole, hippocampus, and parahippocampal gyrus. Praise consistent with adolescents' self-views improved mood independent of depression status, while criticism matching self-views resulted in smaller mood increases in adolescents with depression (v. healthy controls). Exploratory analyses indicated that adolescents with depression recalled criticism (v. praise) more. Adolescents with depression might be especially attentive to parental criticism, as indexed by increased sgACC and hippocampus activity, and memorize this criticism more. Together with lower positive impact of praise, these findings suggest that cognitive biases in adolescent depression may affect how parental feedback is processed, and may be fed into their self-views.

Overparenting in adolescents’ everyday life: Development and validation of the momentary overparenting scale

Background. While there is ample theoretical and empirical interest in overparenting, little is known about how overparenting of adolescents operates in everyday family life. This study describes the development and validation of a novel instrument to assess overparenting with Experience Sampling Methods – The Momentary Overparenting (MOP) scale. Methods. Following 143 (Belgian and Dutch) adolescents for 7 subsequent days, we measured overparenting (i.e., worry, interference, and unnecessary help), autonomy support and psychological control 5 to 6 times per day. Using multilevel structural equation modeling on 1865 parent-adolescent interactions, we investigated the scale’s psychometric properties: within-family and between-family reliability, convergent and divergent validity. Results. Overparenting was characterized by both stable differences between families (46%), as well as dynamic fluctuations within families over time (54% of the variance). The MOP could reliably assess such real-time dynamics in overparenting. Momentary assessments correlated meaningfully with established instruments for overparenting at the between-family level. Within families, adolescents experienced interactions with more overparenting as more psychologically controlling and less autonomy supportive. Between families, overparenting correlated negatively with mothers’ autonomy support and positively with mothers’ psychological control. Conclusion. Worry, interference, and unnecessary help may be important expressions of overparenting in everyday family life – which can now be reliably measured from moment-to-moment as a distinct parenting construct.

Parental Attachment and Proactive-Reactive Aggression in Adolescence: The Mediating Role of Self-Control and Perspective Taking.

Identifying risk and protective factors of aggressive behavior during adolescence is beneficial for the intervention and prevention treatments. Although studies show that attachment quality is closely related to aggression, the underlying psychological mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the links of parental attachment with proactive and reactive aggression and to examine the mediating role of perspective taking and self-control among Chinese adolescents. A cluster sampling method was used to recruit participants from several high schools located in the central regions of China. A total of 2982 participants (Mage = 17.28, SD = 0.83, range 15~20 years; 1602 girls, 1380 boys) were included in the final analysis. Correlation analysis showed that participants possessing higher attachment security with parents were more likely to report lower levels of proactive and reactive aggression. And, self-control and perspective taking were positively associated with parental attachment, and negatively associated with both types of aggression. Moreover, structural equation models indicated that parental attachment directly, and indirectly predicted proactive and reactive aggression through self-control and perspective taking. Overall, this study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the explanatory mechanisms that link adolescent-parent attachment and aggression, and suggest that high quality of adolescent-parent interactions may promote adolescents' self-control and perspectives taking, which further reduces their aggression propensity.

Coercive Parent-Adolescent Interactions Predict Substance use and Antisocial Behaviors Through Early Adulthood: A Dynamic Systems Perspective.

This study revisits the association between coercive parent-adolescent interactions and adolescent externalizing behaviors. Specifically, we investigate the moment-to-moment coercive exchanges between parents and adolescents and how these dynamic processes map to the long-term development of substance use and antisocial behavior from middle adolescence to early adulthood. We collected videotaped observations with 794 adolescents (ages 16-17 years) and their parents during interactions and coded their real-time behavioral exchanges. State Space Grid analyses were used to measure the proportion of time in which each parent-adolescent dyad engaged in the Dyadic Coercion region as an indicator of rigidity in dyadic coercion. We also measured adolescents' substance use and antisocial behavior at ages 16-17, ages 18-19, and ages 21-22. The enduring impact of parent-adolescent coercive interaction on substance use and antisocial behavior was tested using categorical latent growth curve models and path models. Adolescents with more coercive interactions with parents showed higher rates of increase in alcohol use and higher levels of antisocial behavior through early adulthood. The findings highlight the unique contribution of using intensive data to understand coercive interactions on a micro-timescale and how these dynamics influence long-term development in externalizing behaviors. Implications for intervention studies are discussed.

A moment of autonomy support brightens adolescents' mood: Autonomy support, psychological control and adolescent affect in everyday life.

This experience sampling study examined whether autonomy-supportive and psychologically controlling interactions with parents are intertwined with adolescents' momentary affect. For 7 days (in 2020), 143 adolescents (Mage = 15.82; SDage = 1.75; 64% girls; 95% European, 1% African, 3% unknown) reported 5 or 6 times a day how they felt and how interactions with parents were experienced. Preregistered dynamic structural equation models on 1439 (including 532 adjacent) parent-adolescent interactions revealed significant within-family associations: Adolescents experienced more positive affect during and following autonomy-supportive interactions, and vice versa. Adolescents felt more negative affect during and 3 h before psychologically controlling interactions. Between-family associations showed significant linkages between parenting and affect. These findings show that a moment of autonomy support can alter adolescents' everyday well-being.

ECONNECT Parent Group: An Online Attachment-Based Intervention to Reduce Attachment Insecurity, Behavioral Problems, and Emotional Dysregulation in Adolescence.

During adolescence, a secure parent-adolescent relationship promotes youths' adjustment and psychological well-being. In this scenario, several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of the CONNECT program, a 10-session, attachment-based parenting intervention that helps parents understand and reframe their parent-adolescent interactions, reducing adolescents' insecure attachment and behavioral problems. Furthermore, recent years have witnessed a significant increase in the implementation of effective online versions of psychological interventions, emphasizing the opportunity for more agile and easier dissemination of evidence-based protocols. Therefore, this study aims to identify changes in adolescents' attachment insecurity, behavioral problems, and parent-child affect regulation strategies, providing preliminary findings on an online, 10-session, attachment-based parenting intervention (eCONNECT). A total of 24 parents (20 mothers, 4 fathers; Mage = 49.33, SD = 5.32) of adolescents (Mage = 13.83 years, SD = 1.76, 45.8% girls) were assessed on their adolescents' attachment insecurity (avoidance and anxiety) and behavioral problems (externalizing and internalizing), and on their affect regulation strategies in the parent-child interaction (adaptive reflection, suppression, and affect dysregulation) at three time points: before intervention (t0), after intervention (t1), and at a 2-month follow-up (t2). Mixed-effects regression models highlighted a reduction in adolescents' internalizing problems (d = 0.11), externalizing problems (d = 0.29), and attachment avoidance (d = 0.26) after the intervention. Moreover, the reduction in externalizing problems and attachment avoidance remained stable at follow-up. Additionally, our findings highlighted a reduction in parent-child affect dysregulation. Results add preliminary evidence on the implementation suitability of an online attachment-based parenting intervention to change at-risk adolescents' developmental trajectories by reducing attachment insecurity, behavioral problems, and parent-child affect regulation.

Relationship between Parent-Adolescent Interaction and the likelihood of Internalizing and Externalizing Problems Among Adolescents

Adolescence is a transition phase from childhood to adulthood characterized by many drastic changes that make them vulnerable to internalizing and externalizing problems. However, parents can guide in managing the crisis by establishing warm, meaningful, and open interactions with adolescents. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between parent-adolescent interactions on the likelihood of experiencing internalizing and externalizing problems. This quantitative correlational study involved 180 participants from six Junior High Schools in East Java, selected through simple random sampling. Two instruments used were the Parent-Child Interaction Questionnaire-Revised Child Version (PACHIQ-R CH) and the Strenght and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Simple linear regression analysis indicated a significant effect of parent-adolescent interaction on internalizing and externalizing problems. It is suggested that parent-adolescent interactions contribute to the likelihood of adolescents experiencing internalizing and externalizing problems. Building warm, meaningful, and open interactions with adolescents assume to assist them in understanding the adaptive way of expressing emotions and overcoming the drastic changes during the transitional period.

THE INFLUENCE OF PARENT-ADOLESCENT AND PEER INTERACTION ON PREMARITAL SEXUAL PERCEPTION OF BROKEN HOME ADOLESCENT

Divorce in Indonesia continues to increase, resulting in an imbalance of family roles and functions. This imbalance has an impact on adolescents such as adolescent premarital sexual behavior. The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship and influence of parent-adolescent interaction and peer interaction on the perception of premarital sexuality in adolescents from broken home families. The method used in this study was purposive sampling method with online survey completion. The number of research samples was 190 adolescents from broken home families in the Jabodetabek area (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi). The relationship test shows that parent-adolescent interaction has a significant negative relationship with the premarital sexual perceptions of adolescents from broken home families. The results of the effect test show that parent-adolescent interaction has a significant negative effect on the premarital sexual perceptions of adolescents from broken home families, but peer interaction has a positive and insignificant effect on the sexual perceptions of adolescents from broken home families. It is expected that parents can be a discussion partner for adolescents in solving problems. Teenagers are expected to be able to choose a good friendship environment.

Supplemental Material for Facial Expressions in Adolescent–Parent Interactions and Mental Health: A Proof-of-Concept Study

Supplemental Material for Facial Expressions in Adolescent–Parent Interactions and Mental Health: A Proof-of-Concept Study