Parental psychological control and autonomy support and associations with child maltreatment and adolescents' mental health problems
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Date
2023
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Plenum Press
Abstract
Description
Purpose Parental psychological control and autonomy support, abuse, and neglect infuence adolescents’ mental health.
Analyzing the direct and indirect associations between childrearing characteristics, maltreatment, and mental health
is important, especially in understudied and diverse cultural contexts. First, we examine the associations of parental
psychological control and autonomy support with adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems directly and indirectly,
through maltreatment. Second, we evaluate the extent to which parental psychological control and autonomy support may
discriminate self-reported maltreatment in adolescents.
Methods Eight-hundred-and-nine-adolescents (Mage=13.5) from six urban public middle schools in Mexico City participated
and responded to the self-administered Perceived Parental Autonomy Support Scale and the ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening
Tool for each parental fgure and the Youth Self Report for evaluation of internalizing and externalizing problems.
Results Maternal models obtained the best ft [R2=.380, for internalizing, and R2=.229, for externalizing problems], with
strongest indirect efects through maternal negligence for internalizing problems [x2
(2)=1.729, ρ=.4212, RMSEA=.000
(.000, .067), CFI=.999, TLI=.999] and through maternal psychological abuse for externalizing problems [x2
(2)=1.666,
ρ=.4347, RMSEA =.000 (.000, .066), CFI=.999, TLI=.999]. Parental psychological control and autonomy support
discriminate self-reported maltreatment with an area under the curve between .68 and .99.
Conclusions Maternal models showed an association of parental childrearing characteristics with adolescent mental
health problems directly and indirectly through maltreatment, and preliminary evidence suggests that parental childrearing
characteristics may discriminate self-reported maltreatment in adolescents.