Indirect Effects of Parental Psychological Control on Emerging Adult Psychological Problems

Emerging adulthood is a critical period of life that represents the first true independence of many college-aged individuals and a period where psychological problems are prevalent. The aim of the present study was to assess the indirect effects of maternal and paternal psychological control on emerging adults’ anxiety, depressive, and antisocial personality problems through emotion regulation difficulties, which were examined across emerging adult women and men. Participants included 546 individuals from a large southern United States university who completed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, the Adult Self-Report to assess depressive, anxious, and antisocial personality problems, and the Domains of Young Adult Discipline Scale to measure maternal and paternal psychological control. Results indicated that paternal psychological control had a significant indirect effect on emerging adult women’s and men’s anxiety, depressive, and antisocial personality problems via emotion regulation difficulties. Maternal psychological control did not indirectly affect men’s psychological problems. Conversely, higher levels of mothers’ psychological control directly related to higher psychological problems in women and had an indirect effect by means of emotion regulation difficulties. Finally, daily parental contact hours were analyzed by gender and applied to the relevant dyadic discussion as a possible explanation for findings. This study is among the first to examine these relations in the context of emerging adulthood. Limitations and implications are discussed.