Influence of Parenting Behavior on Psychosocial Adjustment in Early Adolescence: Mediated by Anger Regulation and Moderated by Gender

In: Social development, Band 26, Heft 1, S. 40-58

Abstract

AbstractEmotion regulation (ER)—one of the most important developmental tasks in early adolescence—has been proposed to mediate the relation between parenting and adolescents' psychosocial adjustment. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of parental psychological control and autonomy support on adolescents' problem and prosocial behavior (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire), as well as to examine the mediating role of adolescents' anger regulation and the moderating effect of gender. We collected three‐year longitudinal questionnaire data from N = 923 parents and their (at first assessment) 9‐ to 13‐year‐old children. Path‐analysis results mainly support the mediating role of adolescents' adaptive and maladaptive anger regulation and suggest parental autonomy support to be beneficial for regulatory abilities and psychosocial adjustment, whereas the opposite was found for psychological control. Gender differences were found for parent report data, but not for adolescent report data. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.