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Child disclosure, parental solicitation, and adjustment problems: Parental support as a mediator

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Abstract

Little is known about how perceived parental solicitation and child disclosure are negatively associated with early adolescent adjustment problems and/or if these associations are consistent across race/ethnic groups. This study used data from 209 early adolescents to examine perceived parental support as a mediator in the associations between perceived parental solicitation and child disclosure and subsequent adjustment problems, while also examining race/ethnic group differences across non-Hispanic White and Hispanic early adolescents using multi-group path analyses. Perceived parent support did not mediate the associations between child disclosure and perceived parental solicitation and subsequent adjustment problems. However, child disclosure was directly associated with subsequent conduct problems for Hispanic adolescents. Child disclosure and perceived parental solicitation may positively influence the parent-adolescent relationship by increasing parental support but may not entirely help in reducing the prevalence of adjustment problems. Child disclosure may be particularly beneficial for Hispanic early adolescents in reducing adjustment problems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health Sciences, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, 1120 NW 14th Street, Suite 1018, Miami, FL, 33136, USA

    Alejandra Fernandez

  2. Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Alexandra Loukas & Keryn E. Pasch

Authors
  1. Alejandra Fernandez
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  2. Alexandra Loukas
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  3. Keryn E. Pasch
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Contributions

AF was responsible for the study conception and design and performed the analyses. AL and KP commented on all versions of the manuscript and contributed to revising the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Alejandra Fernandez.

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The authors declare no conflict of interests.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent and assent was obtained from parents and adolescents involved in the study.

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Fernandez, A., Loukas, A. & Pasch, K.E. Child disclosure, parental solicitation, and adjustment problems: Parental support as a mediator. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 52, 430–438 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-020-01032-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-020-01032-2

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