Adolescent Positivity and Future Orientation, Parental Psychological Control, and Young Adult Internalising Behaviours during COVID-19 in Nine Countries

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many young adults’ lives educationally, economically, and personally. This study investigated associations between COVID-19-related disruption and perception of increases in internalising symptoms among young adults and whether these associations were moderated by earlier measures of adolescent positivity and future orientation and parental psychological control. Participants included 1329 adolescents at Time 1, and 810 of those participants as young adults (M age = 20, 50.4% female) at Time 2 from 9 countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States). Drawing from a larger longitudinal study of adolescent risk taking and young adult competence, this study controlled for earlier levels of internalising symptoms during adolescence in examining these associations. Higher levels of adolescent positivity and future orientation as well as parent psychological control during late adolescence helped protect young adults from sharper perceived increases in anxiety and depression during the first nine months of widespread pandemic lockdowns in all nine countries. Findings are discussed in terms of how families in the 21st century can foster greater resilience during and after adolescence when faced with community-wide stressors, and the results provide new information about how psychological control may play a protective role during times of significant community-wide threats to personal health and welfare.

I was, I am, I will be: Identity and time perspective before and during COVID‐19

“…Finally, emerging adults in 2021 (both students and workers) reported a higher future orientation than their peers in 2017. This finding is in line with prior research showing high future orientation among adults dealing with the uncertainty of the pandemic (Lenzo et al, 2022), which in turn appears to foster resilience and protect against negative adjustment (Lalot et al, 2021;Skinner et al, 2022).…”

Future Orientation and Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in Italian University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Resilience and the Perceived Threat of COVID-19

“…Therefore, the current sample of Italian university students with future orientation goals is more resilient, indicating that they exhibit more positive attitudes toward life and are better equipped to cope with anxiety and depression. The results of the current study are in line with the literature, showing that positive attitudes that outweigh negative thinking can protect against depression and anxiety, as shown by previous studies [ 13 , 15 , 35 ]. Indeed, a positive outlook on the future is one of the main characteristics of resilience since it helps university students to develop a positive view of life [ 8 ].…”

“…It is based on the human skills to predict the future and anticipate representations and projects, and it represents one of the essential characteristics of human beings [ 14 ]. Therefore, future orientation can be considered a multidimensional cognitive motivational construct that provides the core for setting future goals and plans [ 15 , 16 , 17 ] and developing expectations and personal meaning in relation to future events [ 18 ]. For this reason, future orientation has been regarded in the literature as a protecting factor that helps to prevent problematic behaviours [ 19 ], as well as to perform adaptive behaviours [ 20 ].…”

Co-development of internalizing symptoms and regulatory emotional self-efficacy in adolescence: Time-varying effects of COVID-19-related stress and social support

“…Rates of anxiety and depression among Italian adolescents during the pandemic were higher than those compared to similar populations before the COVID-19 outbreak (Gritti et al, 2014; Pisano et al, 2021). The Italian rates mirror the picture globally; in a nine-country study of more than 800 families, more than half of young adult respondents ( M age = 20) self-reported increases in anxiety and more than one-third reported feeling more depressed after pandemic onset compared to before the COVID-19 outbreak (Skinner et al, 2022). Although adolescent regulatory emotional self-efficacy and adolescent internalizing symptoms are linked in the literature as described above, we know of no studies that measure the co-development of these constructs before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”