Abstract
The unique developmental changes and important role of parents during early adolescence warrants consideration of parent–adolescent communication, including open communication, co-problem-solving, and co-rumination, and its influences on adolescents’ anxious and depressive symptoms. In this study, 400 early adolescents (M age = 12.49; 54% female) recruited from a middle school completed electronic questionnaires at two time points, 5 months apart. While most bivariate associations examined between communication processes and adolescents’ symptoms were significant, path analyses found unique patterns. Specifically, over time, paternal open communication was negatively associated with adolescent anxious and depressive symptoms while paternal co-rumination was positively associated with depressive, but not anxious, symptoms. In contrast, few maternal communication factors were significantly linked to adolescents’ internalizing symptoms, with only maternal co-rumination surprisingly being negatively linked to depressive symptoms over time. The results suggest how parents communicate with their children may be important as early adolescents develop problem-solving and adaptive coping skills to successfully navigate new experiences.
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Acknowledgements
This research study originated from the first author’s doctoral dissertation. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all those individuals participating in and supporting this research.
Authors’ Contributions
MI and LDP created the study design, collected data, performed statistical analysis, interpreted data, and drafted the manuscript; KK performed statistical analysis, interpreted data, and helped to draft the manuscript; JMP assisted with literature review and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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No public sources of funding were utilized for this research study. Study materials and procedural efforts were all financially supported by the authors.
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The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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This study was approved by Northern Illinois University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB). All study procedures involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards upheld by this institutional committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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All adolescents in the study assented to participation. Informed consent forms in English and Spanish were distributed to adolescents’ legal guardians during recruitment. Consent was obtained from each participants’ legal guardians prior to participation in this study.
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Ioffe, M., Pittman, L.D., Kochanova, K. et al. Parent–Adolescent Communication Influences on Anxious and Depressive Symptoms in Early Adolescence. J Youth Adolescence 49, 1716–1730 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01259-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01259-1