Parental Relationships Surpass Friendships as Predictors of Long-Term Mental Functioning: A Multilevel Analysis

AbstractThere were associations between interpersonal relationships (parental relationships  and friendships) and mental functioning (depressive symptoms, resilience, and psychological capital) in adolescents. However, the strengths and changes of these associations across adolescence remain unclear. Findings of the present study contributed to a more thorough understanding of how and whe n parent-child relationships and friendship were associated with mental functioning over time. The data was from a cross-sectional (N = 5952) and longitudinal study (N = 2008) conducted in Jilin province, China. The analysis adopted machine learning method, hierarchical linear modeling, and latent growth curve modeling. Participants completed questionnaires regarding their depressive symptoms, resilience, psychological capital, parental relationships, and fri endships. The results showed that parental relationships wereas more important to mental functioning than friendships in both ways of machine learning methods. The associations between the parent-child relationships and mental functioning may be moderated by friendships. Our findings supported both the compensation and reinforcement models. The influence of parents diminishes over time, and the influence of friendships becomes stronger as children growing up. Overall, this study demonstrates the importance of parents and peers to the mental functioning in early adolescence. Although adolescent s’ friendships become increasing...
Source: International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction - Category: Addiction Source Type: research