Chinese Adolescents’ Coping with COVID‐19: Relationships with Emotional Maladjustment and Parental Reactions to Negative Emotions

Abstract

Two hundred and thirteen Chinese adolescents (103 females; mean age = 12.18 years) completed a survey one year before (Wave 1) and five months after the COVID‐19 outbreak (Wave 2). Path analysis revealed that after controlling for adolescents’ emotional maladjustment at Wave 1, perceived parental supportive reactions to adolescents’ negative emotions at Wave 1 predicted adolescents’ greater use of approach coping and less use of avoidance coping at Wave 2, which in turn, was associated with less emotional maladjustment at Wave 2; conversely, perceived parental nonsupportive reactions at Wave 1 predicted adolescents’ greater use of avoidance coping at Wave 2, which in turn, was associated with greater emotional maladjustment at Wave 2. The findings were similar for mothers and fathers.

Adolescence Amid a Pandemic: Short‐ and Long‐Term Implications

“…The studies in the special issue suggest a number of protective and resilience factors including peer connectedness (virtually and in‐person; Campione‐Barr et al., 2021; Maheux et al., 2021; Parent, Dadgar, Xiao, Hesse, & Shapka, 2021; Sabato et al., 2021) and support (Bernasco et al., 2021); close sibling relationships (Campione‐Barr et al., 2021); adaptive or active coping styles (Maiya et al., 2021; Miconi et al., 2021; Steinhoff et al., 2021); and parental involvement (Maiya et al., 2021), support (Campione‐Barr et al., 2021; Klootwijk et al., 2021; Shi & Wang, 2021), and positive responses to negative emotions (Di Giunta et al., 2021); and emotion regulation skills (Deng et al., 2021). However, some factors that we may traditionally consider protective may backfire in the socially restrictive pandemic climate.…”

“…Despite the wave of mental health challenges many youths are facing, broader developmental challenges also bear note. Studies in this special issue point to disruptions in emotional development (i.e., elevations in stress and negative emotions—Deng, Gadassi Polack, Creighton, Kober, & Joormann, 2021; Maheux, Nesi, Galla, Roberts, & Choukas‐Bradley, 2021; Sabato et al., 2021; Shi & Wang, 2021), decrements in emotion regulation (Di Giunta et al., 2021), academic motivation challenges (Klootwijk, Koele, van Hoom, Güroğlu, & van Duijvenoorde, 2021), and threats to school bonding (Maiya, Dotterer, & Whiteman, 2021). These findings are consistent with prior research that has documented the impact of global financial upheavals—including the Great Depression and Great Recession—and international wars in deflecting young people’s larger educational and employment trajectories (Elder, 2018; Maclean, 2005; Schoon & Mortimer, 2017; Shores & Steinberg, 2019).…”

The Impact of the COVID‐19 Pandemic on Adolescent Emotional, Social, and Academic Adjustment

“…Positive relationships with parents were associated with better adjustment during the pandemic (Campione‐Barr, Rote, Killoren, & Rose, 2021), and paternal attachment insecurity strengthened the increase in loneliness during the pandemic (Janssens et al., 2021). Emotion socialization was particularly found to be important for adolescent adjustment: Unsupportive parental emotion socialization predicted youths’ maladjustment and emotion dysregulation (Di Giunta et al., 2021; Shi & Wang, 2021), and this effect was mediated by greater use of avoidance coping (Shi & Wang, 2021). These findings confirm that family relationships can offer comfort and support that might buffer the effects of the pandemic (see also Weeland et al., 2021).…”

Parental Emotion Socialization, Emotion Regulation and Depressive Symptoms in Chinese Adolescence: The Role of Family Cohesion

“…Preliminary evidence suggests that parental ESB continues to influence the development of emotion regulation during adolescence. Specifically, non-supportive parental ESB is associated with emotion dysregulation, while supportive parental ESB promotes the development of emotion regulation (McNeil & Zeman, 2020; Shi & Wang, 2021). Although the effects of parental ESB on adolescents’ socioemotional development have been examined in some previous studies, the present study extended the existing literature by addressing three issues.…”