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Interparental conflict and depressive symptoms among Chinese adolescents: A longitudinal moderated mediation model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2022

Rui Luo Open the ORCID record for Rui Luo [Opens in a new window] ,
Fumei Chen ,
Li Ke ,
Yun Wang ,
Yunyan Zhao  and
Yuhan Luo
Rui Luo
Affiliation:
Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment toward Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Fumei Chen*
Affiliation:
Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment toward Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Li Ke
Affiliation:
Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment toward Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Yun Wang
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Yunyan Zhao
Affiliation:
Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment toward Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Yuhan Luo
Affiliation:
Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment toward Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
*
Corresponding author: Fumei Chen, email: chenfumei@bnu.edu.cn
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Abstract

While the detrimental effect of interparental conflict on adolescent depression is well-established, the underlying mechanisms linking the two continue to be inadequately understood. This study investigated the mediating role of family functioning and the moderating role of cultural beliefs about adversity in the association between interparental conflict and adolescent depression. The samples included 651 Chinese adolescents (mean age at Time 1 = 13.27 years; 56.5% girls) from a two-wave longitudinal study with data spanning 1 year. The findings from path modeling analyses provided evidence for the mediating role of family functioning; these findings indicated that interparental conflict can damage family functioning, which in turn exacerbates the risk of adolescent depression. The moderating role of cultural beliefs about adversity was also demonstrated by interactions between interparental conflict and cultural beliefs about adversity, as well as, family functioning and cultural beliefs about adversity. The results indicated a buffering role of cultural beliefs about adversity on the deleterious effect of interparental conflict on adolescent depression. They also suggested that lower levels of family functioning was associated with increased depression among adolescents were lower in cultural beliefs about adversity.

Keywords

interparental conflictadolescent depressive symptomsfamily functioningcultural beliefs about adversity
Type
Regular Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , May 2023 , pp. 972 - 981
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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