To what extent is parenting behavior in everyday life associated with negative affect in adolescents? And what is the role of parental attachment?

Adolescence is a sensitive period for the onset of internalizing problems. Previous studies showed that internalizing problems in adolescence may stem from lack of parental warmth and critical parenting. However, most research between parenting and adolescent well-being is based on longitudinal designs, that do not account for the dynamic nature of daily parenting processes and the daily fluctuations in the adolescent affective states. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate to what extent perceived critical parenting and lack of parental warmth of both fathers and mothers are associated with negative affect of adolescents in daily life. Parental attachment was included to investigate the influence of attachment on the link between (negative) parenting behaviour and negative affect. The sample consisted of 80 Dutch adolescents (Mage = 15.90, 63.7% female) who completed ecological momentary assessments for a total of 14 days (4 surveys a day). The multi-level regression...Show moreAdolescence is a sensitive period for the onset of internalizing problems. Previous studies showed that internalizing problems in adolescence may stem from lack of parental warmth and critical parenting. However, most research between parenting and adolescent well-being is based on longitudinal designs, that do not account for the dynamic nature of daily parenting processes and the daily fluctuations in the adolescent affective states. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate to what extent perceived critical parenting and lack of parental warmth of both fathers and mothers are associated with negative affect of adolescents in daily life. Parental attachment was included to investigate the influence of attachment on the link between (negative) parenting behaviour and negative affect. The sample consisted of 80 Dutch adolescents (Mage = 15.90, 63.7% female) who completed ecological momentary assessments for a total of 14 days (4 surveys a day). The multi-level regression models showed that adolescents experienced significantly more negative affect on days when parents showed more criticism or less warmth. In addition, no significant interaction-effect was found between attachment and daily parental criticism from father and mother on adolescent's negative affect. Parental attachment only influences the association between lack of daily parental warmth from fathers and adolescent negative affect. The results showed that daily warmth from father has a stronger positive influence on adolescent negative affect when adolescents had a more secure attachment to their father. In addition, no significant interaction effect was found between attachment with mother and mother's warmth on adolescent's negative affect. These current findings could aid in developing new parental interventions to prevent internalizing problems in adolescents.Show less

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To what extent is parenting behavior in everyday life associated with negative affect in adolescents? And what is the role of parental attachment?