Parenting Behavior and Adolescent Affect: Bidirectionality and the Role of Gender

Abstract

Parents play an important role in adolescent mental health. Yet, research is inconclusive regarding the influence of adolescent affect on parenting behavior. This study examined the bidirectionality between five parenting behaviors and adolescent depressive symptoms—conceptualized by the tripartite model as low positive affect and high negative affect—while investigating gender differences. Adolescents ( N = 193) from a Southern United States high school reported their parent’s parenting behavior and their affect twice over a year. Linear regression results revealed relations between parenting behaviors and adolescent affect in both directions. However, when examining the relation between specific parenting behaviors (e.g., involvement) and adolescent affect (e.g., negative affect), results showed unidirectional effects only. Furthermore, significant gender differences emerged. These findings underline the importance of considering the relation between parenting behavior and adolescent affect as bidirectional and with differential associations depending on the parenting behavior and adolescent affect and gender.