Mediators between Positive and Negative Parenting and Child Depressive and Anxious Symptoms: Findings from a Diverse, At-Risk Sample

Abstract

Background: Although children’s depressive and anxious symptoms have been broadly construed as internalizing problems, the current study sought to identify factors that may differentially contribute to these two mental health problems in a high-risk sample. Prior research has not adequately tested both depressive versus anxious symptoms simultaneously, nor has it adequately considered the role of negative versus positive parenting simultaneously, thereby neglecting the potential overlap in both sets of constructs. Overlooking such potential statistical overlap obfuscates how factors may differentially contribute to either depressive versus anxious symptoms. Existing research has also focused on lower-risk community samples. Method: The present study investigated whether children’s negative self-concept or maladaptive attributional style mediated the link between both negative and positive parenting in a racially diverse, at-risk sample of 65 primary school-age children recruited from mental health agencies. Results: When tested together, more negative parenting, but not less positive parenting, retained direct effects on both depressive and anxious symptoms. Both negative self-concept and maladaptive attributional style fully mediated the association between less positive parenting and children’s depressive symptoms, whereas positive self-concept, but not attributional style, mediated between less positive parenting and anxious symptoms. Conclusions: The current findings underscore potential differential intervention targets for these two internalizing problems and highlight the need for future research to consider both depressive and anxious symptoms, and related predictors, simultaneously to control for their shared variance.

The relationship between parenting style and depressive symptoms during adolescence

“…Their research focused on discerning the discrete impacts of negative and positive parenting on depressive and anxious symptoms through cognitive factors. The results of their study indicated that, when analysed in conjunction, greater negative parenting was directly associated with elevated levels of both depressive and anxious symptoms, whereas reduced positive parenting displayed distinct effects [13]. The relationship between less positive parenting and depressive symptoms was found to be mediated by negative self-concept and maladaptive attributional style, while the link between less positive parenting and anxious symptoms was mediated by positive selfconcept.…”

“…Meanwhile, Rodriguez and colleagues investigated the interplay between parental behaviour, cognitive variables encompassing negative self-concept and maladaptive attributional styles, and internalizing issues involving symptoms of depression and anxiety among a sample of children aged 7 to 11. In the context of primary school-age children, it was observed that maladaptive attributional styles and negative selfconcepts demonstrated a moderate level of correlation [13]. Self-concept refers to the way an individual perceives themselves, and their beliefs about their own abilities, qualities, and characteristics.…”

The Parenting Behaviours and Dimensions Questionnaire – Factor Structure and Psychometric Properties of the Polish Version

“…It is defined as the upbringing of children by their parents, who also take responsibility for their emotional, social, intellectual, and physical development (Phillips et al ., 2017;Massar & Patil, 2019) . For many years, researchers have been interested in the issues related to parental practices, which have been described using different terminology, such as parenting (Rodriguez et al ., 2022), parenting styles (Baumrind, 1971;Hou et al ., 2020), parental attitudes and dimensions (Reid et al ., 2015), or parental practices (Smokowski et al ., 2015) . Most measures intended to assess parental behaviour are based on the theoretical concept of the parenting style typology created by Diana Baumrind (1971) .…”