Mother-child discrepancy in perceived parental control and adolescent filial piety in poor single-mother families

Daily association between parent-adolescent emotion contagion: The role of parent-adolescent connectedness

Emotion contagion between parents and adolescents is crucial for understanding adolescents' emotional experiences. However, little is known about how emotion contagion unfolds in daily life and the unique contributions of parent-adolescent relationships. This study examines the associations between parent and adolescent positive and negative emotions, and the moderating role of daily parent-adolescent connectedness. Participants were 191 Taiwanese adolescents (Mage = 12.93; SDage = 0.75; 53% female) and their parents who completed 10-day diary reports of emotions and parent-adolescent connectedness. Results indicate that higher daily parent negative emotions were associated with more adolescent negative emotions, and higher average parent negative emotions were associated with greater average negative emotions and fewer positive emotions in adolescents. Similar bidirectional effects were also found in adolescent-to-parent emotion contagion. Moreover, on days when connectedness was high, parent negative emotions were not associated with adolescent negative emotions but were related to increased positive emotions. Parent positive emotions were related to more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions when connectedness was low. The findings provide important insights into daily parent-adolescent emotion contagion and highlight parent-adolescent connectedness as a modifying factor in shaping dyadic emotional processes.

Filial Piety and the Development of Independence and Interdependence During Emerging Adulthood: A Longitudinal Study of Taiwanese Adolescents

While filial piety has been widely studied in Confucian-influenced societies, little is known about how it may influence the development of emerging adults' independence and interdependence. Using a population-based longitudinal study in Taiwan (N = 3,149; 49.5% females), this study examined the association between filial piety in adolescence (aged 13-15) and independence and interdependence in emerging adulthood (aged 22). Results show that greater adherence to filial piety in adolescence predicts higher independence in emerging adulthood. Additionally, greater adherence to filial piety predicts higher interdependence for females, but not males, when parents hold traditional gender-role attitudes. This study underscores the significance of cultural norms and parental gender-role attitudes in shaping individuals' development during emerging adulthood.

Asian "Guan" Parenting and Life Satisfaction Among Adolescents in Malaysia: The Mediating Role of Filial Piety

Literature on adolescent development has shown that parenting practices have positive relationships with adolescents’ life satisfaction. Adolescents’ life satisfaction improves when they have parents low in psychological control who uphold reciprocal self-disclosure in their communication. Guan parenting was found to correlate positively with adolescents’ development. Therefore, it is methodologically important to replicate the investigation on the relationship between adolescents’ life satisfaction and Guan parenting. Literature suggests that filial piety is shaped by parenting practices and adolescents who perceived intense parental concern, care, and involvement tend to uphold filial piety and express gratitude toward parents which may promote the adolescents’ life satisfaction. In this study, mediation analysis was done to elucidate the relationship among parents’ guan parenting style, filial piety, and life satisfaction on 606 adolescents (M_age=15.07; SD_age=1.03; 52.1% females) in Malaysia. The adolescents were sampled through cluster sampling, and data were collected using self-administered questionnaires. The results showed positive relationship between paternal and maternal guan parenting with filial piety and adolescents’ life satisfaction. Greater parents’ filial piety was linked to higher life satisfaction among adolescents. Findings from the mediation models indicated the association among guan parenting with filial piety, gratitude toward parents, and higher life satisfaction. The findings also offered empirical evidence to the underlying mechanism of how guan parenting could affect adolescent life satisfaction via the mediating role of filial piety. The findings also supported the importance of culture-infused parenting in inculcating adolescents’ filial piety besides establishing its link to life satisfaction in Asian families.

Parent-Child Discrepancies in Perceived Parent-Child Communication and Depressive Symptoms in Early Adolescents in China

Although recent studies demonstrated that parent-child discrepancies in the perceived family processes were associated with children's developmental outcomes, few studies have addressed this issue in different types of families in mainland China. The present study investigated that how discrepancies in parents' and adolescents' perceptions of parent-adolescent communication were associated with early adolescent depressive symptoms in a nationally representative sample (N = 15,377) with 7010 father-adolescent dyads (adolescents: Mage = 14.24 years, SD = 1.25 years; 5960 adolescents from two-parent families, 443 adolescents from single-father families) and 8367 mother-adolescent dyads (adolescents: Mage = 14.02 years, SD = 1.18 years; 6670 adolescents from two-parent families, 1362 adolescents from single-mother families) in China. Adolescent respondents completed a measure of depressive symptoms and all informants reported on the perceived levels of parent-adolescent communication. Results indicated that adolescents reported parent-child communication more negatively than did their parents. Father-adolescent discrepancies were also greater in intact families than non-intact families. Polynomial regression analyses indicated that while there was a significant interactive effect of father-reported and adolescent-reported father-adolescent communication in Chinese two-parent families, no significant interaction was found for mother-adolescent dyad. Besides, adolescent-reported mother-child communication interacted with mother-reported communication in Chinese single-mother families only. The findings clarify parent-adolescent discrepancies in parent-child communication in different types of families in China and they have theoretical and practical implications on the role of discrepancies in parents and adolescent children on perceived parent-adolescent communication in early adolescent depressive symptoms.

Mothers' challenges with the parental control of 3-year-old children in Japan: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Parents often struggle against the negativism of 3-year-old children in exerting parental control. Although most research on parental control is from western cultures, Japanese mothers may face unique challenges because of their sociocultural background. We therefore explored mothers' challenges in exerting parental control over 3-year-old children in Japan.

METHODS

A descriptive qualitative approach was adopted. The participants were 10 Japanese mothers with children aged 3-4 years. We conducted individual semistructured interviews and analysed the data via qualitative content analysis.

RESULTS

We found four categories and a structure of the challenges mothers faced in exerting parental control. Mothers' control attempts had four main intentions, each with a different subject (i.e., the children, themselves, the family, and society). Most challenges with parental control stemmed from mothers' "consciousness of parental responsibility." In confronting the child in their attempts to exert parental control, mothers perceived a "struggle with the child's negativism," which led them to recognize that they could not find a correct method of discipline. Furthermore, in the face of conflicting roles, mothers experienced "confusion in seeking the righteous answer as a parent." Some mothers began to feel that they were discovering their maternal role in their own way rather than finding a correct answer, which formed a "conviction that my own parenting is not incorrect."

CONCLUSIONS

The challenges mothers faced in exerting parental control over their 3-year-old children served as a turning point for them to reflect on themselves as parents. However, due to societal monitoring of parents and mothers' multiple roles in the family, it can be difficult for mothers to fully overcome the challenges of parental control. It is necessary to foster social capital in the community to which the mother belongs and to create an atmosphere in which community members can watch over parents warmly.

Adolescent Mental Health Problems in Hong Kong: A Critical Review on Prevalence, Psychosocial Correlates, and Prevention

PURPOSE

Adolescent mental health problems are a public health issue in Hong Kong and a review of the situation can have implications for intervention and prevention. This paper aims to review the available prevalence rates of mental health problems among adolescents in Hong Kong and examines the correlates of these conditions through a positive youth development (PYD) framework.

METHODS

Local studies published in English between January 1995 and September 2017 were searched in ERIC, PsycArticles, PsycInfo, and PubMed. Data were selected and extracted by two reviewers. The primary outcome was the prevalence or the scores of mental health problems among adolescents. The secondary outcome was the correlates associated with the problems identified in the studies.

RESULTS

Twenty-three studies were identified. The prevalence of depression was between 0.55% and 2.2% (three studies), whereas the prevalence for anxiety (one study) and generalized anxiety disorder (two studies) were 6.9% and 2.6%, respectively. Comparatively higher levels of depressive symptoms and lower levels of general mental health among Hong Kong adolescents than adolescents in other regions. The protective factors examined in these studies were categorized into PYD constructs, namely: cognitive competence, behavioral competence, emotional competence, resilience, and bonding with family, which were associated with better mental health.

CONCLUSIONS

This review contends that future mental health research and intervention for adolescents should focus more on PYD constructs and family factors.

Influence of Family Processes on Internet Addiction Among Late Adolescents in Hong Kong

The present study investigated how the quality of the parent-child subsystem (indexed by behavioral control, psychological control, and parent-child relationship) predicted Internet addiction (IA) levels and change rates among senior high school students. It also examined the concurrent and longitudinal influence of the father- and mother-related factors on adolescent IA. At the beginning of the 2009/2010 school year, we randomly selected 28 high schools in Hong Kong and invited Grade 7 students to complete a questionnaire annually across the high school years. The present study used data collected in the senior high school years (Wave 4-6), which included a matched sample of 3,074 students (aged 15.57 ± 0.74 years at Wave 4). Growth curve modeling analyses revealed a slight decreasing trend in adolescent IA in senior high school years. While higher paternal behavioral control predicted children's lower initial level of and a slower drop in IA, maternal behavioral control was not a significant predictor of these measures. In contrast, higher maternal but not paternal psychological control showed a significant relationship with a higher initial level of and a faster drop in adolescent IA. Finally, better father-child and mother-child relationships predicted a lower initial level of IA among adolescents. However, while a poorer mother-child relationship predicted a faster decline in adolescent IA, father-child relationship quality did not. With the inclusion of all parent-child subsystem factors in the regression analyses, paternal behavioral control and maternal psychological control were identified as the two unique concurrent and longitudinal predictors of adolescent IA. The present findings delineate the essential role of parental control and the parent-child relationship in shaping children's IA across senior high school years, which is inadequately covered in the scientific literature. The study also clarifies the relative contribution of different processes related to the father-child and mother-child subsystems. These findings highlight the need to differentiate the following: (a) levels of and rates of change in adolescent IA, (b) different family processes in the parent-child subsystem, and (c) father- and mother-related factors' contribution to adolescent IA.