Effects of Family Context on Adolescents’ Psychological Problems: Moderated by Pubertal Timing, and Mediated by Self-Esteem and Interpersonal Relationships

Abstract

We examined the potential mediational roles of self-esteem and interpersonal relationships that link the effect of family context on psychological outcomes in 5214 junior high school students. The moderating effects of pubertal timing were also examined. Pubertal development scores were used to measure pubertal status. Separate mediational models were examined across subgroups with different pubertal timings (i.e., early puberty, on-time puberty, and late puberty). Self-esteem and interpersonal relationships mediated the association between family context and psychological consequences. Although early-maturing adolescents tended to have more psychological problems, they were usually more strongly influenced by self-esteem than were their latematuring counterparts. Self-esteem and interpersonal relationships were both important when dealing with adolescent psychological problems, particularly for those who mature early. Clinicians should be able to recognize these problems associated with pubertal transition and provide appropriate counseling with a focus on positive adaption to reduce adverse psychological and behavioral consequences.

Longitudinal Effects of Self-Report Pubertal Timing and Menarcheal Age on Adolescent Psychological and Behavioral Outcomes in Female Youths from Northern Taiwan

“…The PDS has been validated and widely applied in research on adolescent health and development, regardless of ethnicity and social context. 11,17,19,20 The standardized scale is highly correlated with medical provider reports of Tanner stages, a well-established staging system of pubertal progression. 19,27 However, our analysis clearly showed a suboptimal correlation between the scale and MA, another well-defined indicator of sexual maturation.…”

“…As compared with previous research, the participants were classified into three PT groups: early puberty [more than 1 standard deviation (SD) above], on-time puberty (within 1 SD either way), and late puberty (more than 1 SD below). 17,20,21 MA was reported as the grade during which the participants experienced menarche. The average MA was 12.11 (AE1.04) years among Taiwanese school girls.…”

“…23 This scale has been validated in multiple languages and extensively applied in clinical and epidemiological research regarding depression and psychological well-being evaluation worldwide. 17,24,25 The symptoms that typically represent adolescent mental health-related investigations include "headaches," "dizziness," "loneliness," "depression," "worriedness," "feeling like hurting others," "feeling like arguing with others," "feeling like screaming," "insomnia," "waking up early," "light sleeping," "muscle pain," "feeling numb," "feeling like something is stuck in your throat," "feeling weak," and "having suicidal feelings." 17,26 A 5-point Likert's scale from 0 to 4 was used to score these items and all the item scores were summed up at the end.…”

“…16 By contrast, in our previous report we found that self-rated sexual maturity status was related to adolescent psychological well-being regarding self-esteem and interpersonal relationships. 17 The inconsistent results may be due to methodological differences in defining pubertal status. In addition, another question that needs to be addressed is whether the psychosocial effects of pubertal timing (PT) on adolescent development persist into adulthood.…”

Predictors of oral health‐related quality of life in Iranian adolescents: A prospective study

“…Although an insignificant χ 2 ‐test also suggests a good data‐model fit, we intended not to use the criterion because of its oversensitivity to a large sample, In addition, the direct and indirect effects were tested using bootstrap methods. Specifically, we used the bias‐corrected bootstrap with 1000 bootstrap samples to calculate the 95% confidence intervals (CI), and the indirect effects occur when the confidence interval does not contain zero …”