Associations Between Parental Internalizing Symptomology and Adolescent Adjustment: an Examination of Direct and Indirect Effects

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the link between parental internalizing symptomology (i.e. symptoms of anxiety or depression) and adolescent adjustment (i.e., antisocial behavior, depressive symptoms, prosocial behavior, emotion regulation) and whether this link was mediated by parent-child relationship quality or parental emotion socialization. The sample consisted of 206 families with adolescents who participated in the Family and Youth Development Project. The results indicate that high levels of parental anxiety symptomology were significantly related to high levels of youth antisocial behavior and low levels of prosocial behavior and emotion regulation. Parental symptoms of depression were also positively and significantly related to youth antisocial behavior. The results also indicated indirect effects of parental symptoms of anxiety on youth antisocial behavior, prosocial behavior, and anger regulation through the quality of the parent-child relationship. Implications of the findings for service providers and interventionists are discussed.