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Parental Relationship Quality and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: Investigating The Role of Parental Warmth and Hostility in United States Military Families
Author(s) -
LucierGreer Mallory,
Howard Samantha,
Mancini Jay
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of marital and family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.868
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1752-0606
pISSN - 0194-472X
DOI - 10.1111/jmft.12451
Subject(s) - hostility , psychology , spouse , depressive symptoms , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , psychiatry , anxiety , sociology , anthropology
Military life is characterized by regular transitions; thus, parents are positioned to serve as stable protective factors for adolescents. We investigated a theory‐informed model that assessed direct and indirect relationships between parental relationship quality, parental behaviors, and adolescent depressive symptomatology using cross‐sectional data of military families in the United States (US). Participant families ( N = 229), recruited via convenience sampling to take a computer‐based survey, included an active duty father, his spouse, and an adolescent. Mother’s couple relationship quality was indirectly linked to adolescent depressive symptoms through maternal warmth. Conversely, father’s couple relationship quality was indirectly linked to adolescent depressive symptoms via paternal hostility. In other words, parental couple relationship quality was indirectly related to adolescent depressive symptoms, but this relationship differed by parent (i.e., warmth for mothers and hostility for fathers). Findings were similar for adolescent boys and girls.