Parent-adolescent Dyads Research Articles

Are we on the same page? Exploring the relationships between environmental values, self-identity, personal norms and behavior in parent-adolescent dyads

Environmental values, self-identity and personal norms are relevant factors predicting individuals' environmentally-friendly behaviors. These environmental motivations do not form in solitude but in social interactions, and as such could be shaped by the family context. Yet, we do not know to what extent environmental motivations among family members are related, such as between parents and their adolescent children. Adolescents in particular could potentially hold different environmental motivations than their parents because of age-specific tendencies to rebel against the norms and values of parents and to seek their own unique identity. We studied the relationships between environmental motivations and behaviors in a representative sample of 492 adolescent-parent dyads in Lithuania (N = 984). We found positive relationships between parents' and their adolescent children's environmental values, self-identity and personal norms. Furthermore, adolescents' environmental motivations were associated with parents' pro-environmental behaviors, and parents' environmental motivations were associated with adolescents' pro-environmental behaviors. The study supports and extends the accumulating evidence that environmental motivations, in particular environmental values, self-identity and personal norms, are positively related between parents and their adolescent children and can potentially predict each-others’ pro-environmental behavior.

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).

Family functioning, well-being, and mental health among new immigrant families.

The present study was conducted to identify latent profiles of adolescent-reported and parent-reported family functioning, as well as their links with adolescent and parent well-being and mental health, among recent immigrants from the Former Soviet Union to Israel. A sample of 160 parent-adolescent dyads completed measures of parent-adolescent communication, parental involvement, positive parenting, family conflict, self-esteem, optimism, depressive symptoms, and anxiety. Results indicated four latent profiles-Low Family Functioning, Moderate Family Functioning, High Family Functioning, and High Parent/Low Adolescent Family Functioning (i.e., discrepant reports of family functioning). Adolescent depressive symptoms and anxiety were highest in the discrepant profile and lowest in the High Family Function profile; adolescent self-esteem and optimism were highest in the High Family Function profile and lowest in the Low Family Function profile; and parent depressive symptoms and anxiety were highest in the Low Family Function profile and lowest in the High Family Function profile. Parent self-esteem and optimism did not differ significantly across profiles. These results are discussed in terms of cultural and developmental contexts of adolescence and parenting within immigrant families, in terms of family systems theory, and in terms of the need for clinical services among families with discrepant reports of family functioning between parents and adolescents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

A Child-Parent Dyad Study on Adolescent Paranoia and the Influence of Adverse Life Events, Bullying, Parenting Stress, and Family Support.

Paranoid beliefs commonly occur in the general adolescent population. Exposure to adverse life events (ALEs) and/or bullying are important environmental risk factors. The extent to which others, especially parents, are available to help a young person cope with stressful situations may offset this risk. A cross-sectional adolescent-parent dyad design (n = 142 pairs) was used to test whether an adolescent's perception of being supported by their family, and/or the parent's perception of stress and burden in their parenting role, moderated the association between environmental risk and adolescent paranoid beliefs. Moderation analysis indicated that ALEs were significantly associated with adolescent paranoid beliefs when parents reported high stress and burden in their parenting role. Conversely, at low and moderate levels of parental stress, ALEs were unrelated to paranoid beliefs. Bullying was strongly associated with paranoia, with no moderation effects. The adolescent's perception of support within their family had no moderating effects. Findings indicate that the focus of prevention should be shifted beyond just families of adolescents who are experiencing psychosis and/or have high "at-risk" profiles, to families of adolescents exposed to ALEs. Targeted support for parents to help reduce parental stress and burden, and help foster protective family environments even in the face of ALEs, is an important avenue for reducing the risk of paranoid beliefs in adolescents. Further research is required to better understand how to offset the deleterious effect of bullying on paranoid beliefs in adolescents.

Promoting Adolescents' Social Responsibility through Parent-Adolescent Conversations about the COVID-19 Pandemic

PurposeThis longitudinal mixed-method study examined the content and qualities of parent-adolescent conversations about the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether discourse about social responsibility (i.e., care for others and health protective behaviors [HPBs]) within conversations predicted changes in adolescents' socially responsible behavior across the first year of the pandemic. MethodsParticipants were 122 ethnically/racially diverse parent-adolescent dyads from Southern California. In spring 2020 (Time 1), adolescents completed an online survey measuring their engagement in HPBs (e.g., social distancing) and prosociality (both pandemic-specific and global). A few months following survey completion (Time 2), parent-adolescent dyads engaged in an audio-recorded conversation about the pandemic. In winter 2020 (Time 3), adolescents' engagement in HPBs and prosociality were reassessed via an online survey. ResultsDyads spent 25% of conversational turns, on average, discussing social responsibility (4% and 21% of turns discussing care for others and HPBs, respectively). Internal state language reflecting emotion terms was positively correlated with the proportion of conversational turns spent discussing care for others and negatively associated with conversational turns spent discussing HPBs. Regression analyses revealed that both care for others and HPB conversation themes uniquely predicted increases in adolescents' engagement in HPBs over time; however, care for others was a stronger predictor (β = 0.24 vs. β = 0.16). Discussions about care for others (but not HPBs) predicted increases in pandemic-specific prosociality, but not global prosocial behavior. DiscussionParent-adolescent conversations may be rich ground for the socialization of adolescents' social responsibility during crises and can inform best practices for engaging adolescents in current and future community health initiatives.

Adolescents' and parents' affect in relation to discrepant perceptions of parental warmth in daily life.

The current study aimed to evaluate how adolescents' and parents' perceptions of daily parenting-and their discrepancies-relate to daily parent and adolescent affect. Daily parental warmth and affect were assessed using electronic diaries in 150 American adolescent-parent dyads (61.3% females, Mage = 14.6, 83.3% White; 95.3% mothers, Mage = 43.4; 89.3% White) and in 80 Dutch adolescents with 79 mothers and 72 fathers (63.8% females, Mage = 15.9, 91.3% White; Mage = 49.0, 97.4% White). Results of preregistered models indicated that individuals' affect may be more important for perceptions of parenting than discrepancies between parent-adolescent reports of parenting for affect, stressing the need to be aware of this influence of affect on parenting reports in clinical and research settings.

Adolescents' and Parents' Perspectives on a Novel Decision-Making Process for Return of Results in Genomic Research.

To understand whether they found a two-step decision process helpful and why, adolescent-parent dyads participating in a study investigating return of genomic testing results were asked about their decision-making experience. Responses were qualitatively coded and analyzed using thematic analysis. Adolescents and parents found both joint and independent decision-making stages helpful. Regarding independent decision-making, adolescents appreciated exercising independence, while parents valued both adolescent and parental independence. Joint decision-making allowed each to hear the other's viewpoints. Some found joint decision-making irrelevant but recognized it might help others. Overall, adolescents and parents had similar reasons for finding the two-step decision-making process helpful. Our findings support using such a process for engaging parents and adolescents in challenging research and clinical decisions.

Prescription Opioid Use for Adolescents With Neurocognitive Disability Undergoing Surgery: A Pilot Study

IntroductionParents frequently report retaining unused opioid pills following their child's surgery due to fear of untreated postoperative pain. Assessment of pain in adolescents with neurocognitive disability is challenging. We hypothesized that parents of adolescents with neurocognitive disability may report less opioid use and higher opioid pill retention. MethodsAdolescents (13-20 y) undergoing elective surgery (posterior spinal fusion, hip reconstruction, arthroscopy, tonsillectomy) were prospectively enrolled from a tertiary children's hospital from 2019 to 2020. Only adolescents prescribed opioids at discharge were included. Parents completed a preoperative survey collecting sociodemographic characteristics and two postoperative surveys at 30- and 90-d. Neurocognitive disability was determined at time of enrollment by caregiver report, and included adolescents with cerebral palsy, severe autism spectrum disorder, and discrete syndromes with severe neurocognitive disability. ResultsOf 125 parent-adolescent dyads enrolled, 14 had neurocognitive disability. The median number of opioid pills prescribed at discharge did not differ by neurocognitive disability (29, interquartile range {IQR}: 20.0-33.3 versus 30, IQR: 25.0-40.0, P = 0.180). Parents of both groups reported similar cumulative days of opioid use (7.0, IQR: 3.0-21.0 versus 6.0, IQR:3.0-10.0, P = 0.515) and similar number of opioid pills used (4, IQR: 2.0-4.5 versus 12, IQR: 3.5-22.5, P = 0.083). Parents of both groups reported similar numbers of unused opioid pills (17, IQR: 12.5-22.5 versus 19, IQR: 8.0-29.0, P = 0.905) and rates of retention of unused opioids (15.4% versus 23.8%, P = 0.730). ConclusionsThe number of opioid pills prescribed did not differ by neurocognitive disability and parents reported similar opioid use and retention of unused opioid pills. Larger studies are needed to identify opportunities to improve postoperative pain control for children with neurocognitive disability.

A pilot study examining financial stress during COVID-19 and executive function in mental health in parents and children

Families have endured intense economic shock throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, which may be linked to reduced cognitive performance as well as mental health outcomes of parents and children. The present study investigated how COVID-19-related financial stress and parental job loss impact executive functions and mental health in both parents and adolescents. Participants in the study were 83 adolescent-parent dyads (Adolescent Age M = 13.01 years, SD = 2.27, Parent Age M = 43.26, SD = 5.07) who participated remotely between April 25th and June 1st 2021. Both parents and adolescents completed three measures of executive function and also reported on their mental health symptoms using the MHI-5 and RCADS-short, respectively. Parents also reported on financial stress and whether they or their partner had lost employment during the pandemic (37.8% lost employment). Parental job loss was correlated with greater financial stress (r =.342, p =.002). Financial stress was correlated with worse adolescent inhibitory control (r = -.232, p =.036), but better parent working memory (r =.261, p =.018). Greater financial stress was associated with more mental health symptoms (r =.288, p =.009) for parents, but not adolescents. These results suggest that financial stress may impact child executive function and parent mental health. Further research is needed, as the long-term repercussions of economic stress on mental health and executive functions may become more apparent as the pandemic progresses.

An Analysis of Turn Transitions and Conversational Motifs in Parent-Adolescent Emotion-Focused Interactions

ABSTRACT Informed by the dynamic dyadic systems perspective on analyzing conversational data, this study uses sequence analysis to illuminate turn patterns that characterize parents’ emotion coaching/dismissing communication and adolescents’ emotion regulation/dysregulation in conversations about an emotionally evocative event. This study analyzed two conversations from 60 parent-adolescent dyads, 30 with harmful parental alcohol use and 30 without, where the adolescent described recent events that elicited positive and negative feelings. Using configural frequency analysis, we identified turn sequences that were over- and under-represented in the data, and we compared the prevalence of different turn sequences between families with harmful and non-harmful alcohol use. Then, using sequence analysis, we identified conversational motifs that reflect different patterns of parental communication and adolescent emotion regulation in conversation. Three conversational motifs emerged in conversations about negative emotions: (a) information sharing, (b) emotion regulating, and (c) reactive. Conversations about positive emotions revealed two conversational motifs: (a) emotion regulating and (b) information sharing. In addition, the conversational motifs were examined as predictors of adolescents’ post- interaction appraisals of their own emotion regulation and their parent’s responsiveness and control during the conversation. Findings point to the utility of sequence analysis for documenting patterns of interaction in parent-adolescent emotion-focused conversations.

Digital location tracking: A preliminary investigation of parents' use of digital technology to monitor their adolescent's location.

The emergence of digital technologies has changed the dynamic of parent-adolescent relationships. Parents can now use digital technologies to monitor their adolescent's physical location. Yet, to date, no known research has examined the extent to which digital location tracking occurs in parent-adolescent dyads, and how tracking links to adolescent adjustment. The current research examined digital location tracking in a large sample of adolescents (N = 729; Mage = 15.03). Overall, about half of parents and adolescents reported digital location tracking. Girls and younger adolescents were more likely to be tracked, and tracking was associated with greater externalizing problems and alcohol consumption; however, these associations were not robust across multiple informants and sensitivity analyses. Positive linkages with externalizing problems and cannabis use were in part contingent on age and positive parenting, with associations emerging for older adolescents and adolescents who report lower positive parenting. Older adolescents are increasingly striving for independence and autonomy, and adolescents who perceive lower positive parenting may view digital tracking as controlling and intrusive. However, results were not robust after statistical correction. This brief report is intended to serve as a preliminary investigation into digital location tracking, and future research is needed to determine the directionality of associations. Possible consequences of parental digital tracking require careful consideration by researchers in order to provide guidance on the best practices for engaging in digital monitoring while nurturing and respecting the parent-adolescent relationship. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Discrepancies in parent-adolescent educational and career expectations and overparenting

Informed by the goodness-of-fit model, goal theories, and literature on support gaps, this study examines the associations between congruence/discrepancies in parent-adolescent expectations of the adolescent’s educational and career goals and adolescents’ perceived overparenting. Data were collected through a survey of 122 parent-adolescent dyads from four high schools in the U.S. Results from second-order polynomial regression with response surface analysis indicated that parental high educational or career goal expectation alone was not necessarily related to adolescents’ perception of overparenting. Rather, adolescents’ perception of overparenting depended on the congruence/discrepancies in parents’ and adolescents’ expectations. Compared to parent-adolescent congruence in high or low expectations, either direction of expectation discrepancies—either parents’ expectation exceeds adolescents’ expectation, or adolescents’ expectation exceeds their parents—was more likely to be associated with adolescents’ perception of overparenting. Parenting intervention and educational programs should acknowledge that discrepancies in parents’ and adolescents’ educational and career goals could potentially contribute to parental overparenting. Fostering communication and negotiation of goal expectations between parents and adolescents may help reduce the practice of overparenting.

The dyadic effects of social support on anxiety among family members during COVID-19: The mediating role of perceived family resilience.

Families have been suffering from huge financial loss and psychological distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most existing studies investigated the protective factors for anxiety at the individual level, while understandings from the perspective of family dyadic level were left unknown. Considering that social support could serve as a protective factor to reduce anxiety both at individual level and at dyadic level, the present study adopted dyadic data analysis approach to tackle this puzzle. In total, 2512 Chinese parent-adolescent dyads completed a survey with scales of anxiety, social support, and perceived family resilience on July 31 and August 1 of 2021. Results showed that: (1) adolescents' perceived social support had significant actor and partner effects on their own and parents' anxiety, whereas parents' perceived social support only had a significant actor effect on their own anxiety and (2) the actor mediating effects of social support on anxiety via one's own perceived family resilience were found in both adolescents and parents, and a partner mediating effect of adolescents' social support was significantly associated with parents' anxiety through parents' perceived family resilience. Findings emphasize that interventions aiming at increasing adolescents' support resources could generate a significant effect on reducing anxiety.

Parent-adolescent informant discrepancy on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in the UK Millennium Cohort Study

BackgroundDevelopmental researchers often use a multi-informant approach to measure adolescent behaviour and adjustment, but informant discrepancies are common. In general population samples, it is often found that parents report more positive and less negative outcomes than adolescents themselves. This study aimed to investigate factors associated with informant discrepancy, including adolescent sex, and parental level of psychological distress and education.MethodsInformant discrepancy on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was investigated using a Latent Difference Score (LDS) approach, which estimates the true difference between parent and adolescent reports in a structural equation model. The sample were parent-adolescent dyads from the seventh wave of the UK Millennium Cohort Study (N = 6947, 49.3% female, aged 17 years).ResultsParents reported lower levels of difficulties (emotion symptoms, peer problems, conduct problems), and higher levels of pro-social behaviour than adolescents themselves. Conditional effects were found, as discrepancy was greater amongst parent-daughter dyads for emotion and peer problems, and greater amongst parent-son dyads for conduct problems and pro-social behaviour. Parent-adolescent discrepancy was also greater generally if parents had a lower level of psychological distress or a higher level of education.ConclusionsIn a large general population sample from the UK, it was found that adolescents tended to report more negative and less positive outcomes than parents reported about them. Conditional effects were found at the parent and adolescent level suggesting that specific informant biases are likely to impact the measurement of adolescent behaviour and adjustment across reporters.

Status and correlates of food and nutrition literacy among parents-adolescents' dyads: findings from 10 Arab countries.

Food literacy is capturing the attention worldwide and gaining traction in the Arab countries. Strengthening food and nutrition literacy among Arab teenagers are important promising empowering tools which can protect them from malnutrition. This study aims to assess the nutrition literacy status of adolescents with the food literacy of their parents in 10 Arab countries. This cross-sectional study involving a convenient sample of 5,401 adolescent-parent dyads (adolescents: mean age ± SD: 15.9 ± 3.0, females: 46.8%; parents: mean age ± SD: 45.0 ± 9.1, mothers: 67.8%) was launched between 29 April and 6 June 2022 in 10 Arab nations. The Adolescent Nutrition Literacy Scale (ANLS) and the Short Food Literacy Questionnaire (SFLQ) were used to meet the study aims. More than one-quarter (28%) of adolescents had poor nutrition literacy, with 60% of their parents being food illiterate. The top three countries with nutritionally" less literate" adolescents were Qatar (44%), Lebanon (37.4%), and Saudi Arabia (34.9%). Adolescents' age, gender, education level, primary caregivers, employment status, and the inclusion of nutrition education in the schools' curriculum predicted the nutrition literacy levels of Arab adolescents. Besides, parental weight status, health status, parent's food literacy level, and the number of children per household were significant determinants too. Adolescents studying at a university and having parents with adequate food literacy had the highest odds of being nutritionally literate (OR = 4.5, CI = 1.8-11.5, p = 0.001, OR = 1.8, CI = 1.6-2.1, p < 0.001, respectively). Nutrition literacy inadequacy among Arab adolescents is a prioritized challenge to be tackled.

Brain Similarity as a Protective Factor in the Longitudinal Pathway Linking Household Chaos, Parenting, and Substance Use

BackgroundSocioecological factors such as family environment and parenting behaviors contribute to the development of substance use. While biobehavioral synchrony has been suggested as the foundation for resilience that can modulate environmental effects on development, the role of brain similarity that attenuates deleterious effects of environmental contexts has not been clearly understood. We tested whether parent–adolescent neural similarity—the level of pattern similarity between parent–adolescent functional brain connectivity representing the level of attunement within each dyad—moderates the longitudinal pathways in which household chaos (a stressor) predicts adolescent substance use directly and indirectly via parental monitoring. MethodsIn a sample of 70 parent–adolescent dyads, similarity in resting-state brain activity was identified using multipattern connectivity similarity estimation. Adolescents and parents reported on household chaos and parental monitoring, and adolescent substance use was assessed at a 1-year follow-up. ResultsThe moderated mediation model indicated that for adolescents with low neural similarity, but not high neural similarity, greater household chaos predicted higher substance use over time directly and indirectly via lower parental monitoring. Our data also indicated differential susceptibility in the overall association between household chaos and substance use: Adolescents with low neural similarity exhibited high substance use under high household chaos but low substance use under low household chaos. ConclusionsNeural similarity acts as a protective factor such that the detrimental effects of suboptimal family environment and parenting behaviors on the development of adolescent health risk behaviors may be attenuated by neural similarity within parent–adolescent bonds.

The Role of Intervention Fidelity, Culture, and Individual-Level Factors on Health-Related Outcomes Among Hispanic Adolescents with Unhealthy Weight: Findings from a Longitudinal Intervention Trial

Previous studies have suggested the impact of intervention fidelity on the management and prevention of chronic diseases; however, little is known about the effect of the contributing determinants (at multiple levels of influence) that can impact health-related interventions intending to improve the health status of Hispanic adolescents with overweight or obesity. The current study aimed to assess whether fidelity (i.e., dosage and quality of the program delivery), acculturation (i.e., orientation to the American culture, retention of Hispanic cultural values), and individual-level socio-demographic characteristics (i.e., income, education) predict changes in family processes (e.g., parent control), which in turn may affect adolescent health-related outcomes including body mass index (BMI), physical activity, dietary intake, and adolescents’ health-related quality of life. A pathway analysis model was utilized to explore the study variables among 140 Hispanic parent-adolescent dyads randomized to Familias Unidas Health and Wellness (FUHW) intervention. Results indicated that fidelity was significantly associated with changes in parent-adolescent communication, parent monitoring, limit-setting, and control. Parents’ education was associated with changes in parent limit-setting, and parent Hispanicism was associated with changes in parent limit-setting and discipline. The examination between family processes and adolescent health outcomes revealed that parents’ higher discipline and improved communication with their adolescents were significantly associated with improved adolescents’ quality of life, and parent control was positively associated with physical activity and negatively associated with BMI in adolescents. Our findings demonstrated the significant contribution of intervention fidelity and participants’ characteristics in parenting strategies leading to adolescents’ health outcomes to prevent obesity-related chronic diseases. Future research is needed to investigate the effect of environmental and organizational factors on the delivery of the intervention materials.

Parent-Adolescent Communication About Reproductive Health Issues in Nigeria

Parent-adolescent communication about sexual and reproductive health (SRH) issues is associated with healthy sexual outcomes in adolescents. The increasing evasion of this discourse at the home front in sub-Saharan Africa is receiving greater academic and public health attention. In many Nigerian households, adolescents lack access to informative and undiluted communication with their parents, a situation that is worse for adolescents dwelling in slums. This study documented SRH issues and patterns of parent-adolescent communication in selected slums of Ibadan, Southwestern, Nigeria. A mixed sequential explanatory research was carried out in 10 selected slums in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. A structured questionnaire scripted on open data kits (ODK) and vignette for Focus Group Discussion (FGD) were used to obtain data from parents and adolescents. A sample of 796 parent-adolescent dyads was interviewed for the quantitative strand, and 8 FGDs were conducted for the qualitative component. Analytical techniques utilized for quantitative data included descriptive (frequency counts and percentages) and inferential (chi-square) statistics, while descriptive and interpretative analyses were adopted for qualitative data. Communication regarding SRH issues occurs in many households, but indirectly. A higher proportion of mothers discuss all SRH issues with their adolescents and better than fathers. While female adolescents engage their parents only on limited topics, the consequences of sexual behaviors are the least discussed. The chi-square values for each topic were not significant for parents and adolescents, however, only the discussion of preventive sexual practice was significant for parents (0.042) at a significant level of 0.05 and adolescents (0.000) at a significant level of 0.01. The findings of this study suggest that sexual education training intervention is germane to enhancing parent-adolescent communication on SRH issues for parents and adolescents.

Does parental media mediation make a difference for adolescents? Evidence from an empirical cohort study of parent-adolescent dyads

Background and aimsAdolescents, who are undergoing brain changes, are vulnerable to many online risks in their use or overuse of digital technology. Parental media mediation (a set of practices parents use to guide children's media use and to reduce potential negative consequences of children from media) is considered an important way to help regulate and reduce adolescents' use or problematic use of digital media and protect them from online risks. However, previous studies have shown controversial results. These controversial results reflect a reproducibility crisis in psychological science due to selective reporting, selective analysis, and inadequate description of the conditions necessary to obtain results. MethodsTo address this issue and reveal the authentic effect of parental media mediation strategies, this study presented the results of a specification curve analysis of 1176 combinations indicating the longitudinal effect of parental media mediation on adolescent smartphone use or problematic use. A total of 2154 parent-adolescent dyads (adolescents’ ages ranged from 9 to 18, the average age was 12.13 ± 2.20, and 817 of the adolescents were male) participated in two waves of measurements. ResultsThe results showed that of the 12 parental media mediations, joint parental use for learning had the greatest effect in reducing future smartphone use or problematic use among adolescents. Overall, none of the parental media mediations had a substantial effect in reducing future smartphone use or problematic use among adolescents. Discussion and conclusionsThe ineffectiveness of parental media mediation poses a challenge for researchers, the public, and policy-makers. More exploration is needed in the search of effective parental media mediations for adolescents.

Co-occurring Stress Trajectories and the Longitudinal Coupling of Internalizing Symptoms in Parent-Adolescent Dyads.

Stress is one candidate mechanism posited to contribute to the intergenerational risk of psychopathology. However, the ways in which parent and child stress are related across adolescence, and the role that co-occurring parent and child stress may exert regarding bidirectional risk for internalizing symptoms, are not well understood. Using repeated measures data spanning 3-years, this study investigated (1) the extent to which trajectories of parent and child stress are related during adolescence, and (2) whether co-occurring parent and child stress trajectories mediate prospective, bidirectional associations between parent depression symptoms and child internalizing symptoms (depression, physical and social anxiety). Participants included 618 parent-adolescent dyads (age 8-16; 57% girls; 89% mothers). Parent depressive symptoms and child symptoms of depression, social anxiety, and physical anxiety were assessed via self-report questionnaire at baseline and 36 months later. Parent and child stress were assessed via self-report questionnaire every three months between 3- and 33-months (11 total assessments). Latent growth curve model (LGCM) analysis found that parent and child stress trajectories were positively related across development. Prospective LGCM mediation analysis showed that higher youth stress at 3-months partially mediated prospective relations between parental depressive symptoms at baseline and youth depressive, as well as physical and social anxiety symptoms at 36-months. Parent and child stress reinforce each other across adolescence and may lead to increased risk for psychopathology. Increases in child stress represent an important factor conferring transdiagnostic risk for internalizing among children of depressed parents.