Fumei Chen

Introduction: Parenting styles are associated with adolescent well‐being, yet the mechanisms linking family relational resources and individual traits remain less clear, particularly regarding potential differences between maternal and paternal influences. Methods: This longitudinal study included 824 early adolescents from China ( M _Age = 12.68 ± 0.43, 53.90% boys), followed across 4 waves over 18 months. Structural equation modeling was used to examine whether perceived parental trust and support (PTS) and adolescent resilience sequentially mediated the associations between parenting styles (emotional warmth, rejection, and overprotection) and adolescent well‐being. Multi‐group analyses were conducted to explore adolescent gender differences. Results: Maternal emotional warmth was positively associated with adolescent well‐being by fostering PTS and resilience, whereas maternal rejection and overprotection were indirectly associated with lower adolescent well‐being through reduced PTS and the sequential pathway. Crucially, paternal effects were mainly observed in relation to emotional warmth. Multi‐group analyses suggested some gender differences, with stronger indirect associations observed among girls for all three parenting styles. Conclusions: These findings highlight a sequential pathway linking parenting styles to adolescent well‐being through interconnected relational and individual processes and suggest that maternal and paternal parenting, as well as gender differences, should be interpreted with caution. Interventions targeting parent–child relationships may benefit from focusing on enhancing adolescents' perceptions of trust and support.

Bullying perpetration and victimization are prevalent adolescent peer problems with lasting adverse consequences. Although previous research identifies various parental and family risks for these peer problems, the role of mothers' parental burnout and the underlying longitudinal mechanisms remain underexplored. This three-wave longitudinal study (6-month intervals across 12 months) examined whether higher levels of mothers' parental burnout at T1 predicted higher adolescent bullying perpetration and victimization at T3, and whether adolescents' perceptions of higher psychological control at T2 and lower autonomy support at T2 mediated these associations. The sample included 1,969 adolescents (49.90% boys; M_age = 14.35, SD_age = 1.30) and their mothers (M_age = 41.68, SD_age = 5.24). After controlling for autoregressive effects and covariates (gender, school, and SES), results showed that higher mothers' parental burnout at T1 predicted higher psychological control at T2 and lower autonomy support at T2, as well as greater bullying perpetration and victimization at T3. Higher psychological control at T2, rather than lower autonomy support at T2, uniquely predicted greater bullying perpetration and victimization at T3 and emerged as the specific significant longitudinal mediator. The indirect effect through psychological control exceeded that through autonomy support for both outcomes (significant at the 90% CI for bullying perpetration and 95% CI for bullying victimization). These findings revealed that psychological control is the specific parenting mechanism through which mothers' parental burnout contributes to adolescents' later bullying perpetration and victimization.

To fully understand resilience and to inform resilience-promoting interventions, it is important to explore how resilience develops and the factors that influence it. Using a multidimensional approach that considers both well-being resilience (higher than expected wellbeing after adversity) and depression resilience (lower than expected depression after adversity), this study examined resilience trajectories among Chinese 0adolescents and the associations of gratitude and perceived stress with resilience trajectories. Data from a four-wave longitudinal study were analyzed from 563 Chinese adolescents (mean age at Time 1 = 12.83 years, 51.87% boys). Parallel-process latent class growth modeling identified four distinct trajectories of resilience development: flourishing resilience (increasing resilience; 21.67%), increasing wellbeing resilience but decreasing depression resilience (28.24%), declining resilience (29.48%), and increasing depression resilience but decreasing wellbeing resilience (20.61%). Gratitude was associated with greater odds of being in the flourishing resilience group. Furthermore, perceived stress was associated with lower odds of being in the flourishing resilience group and higher odds of being in the declining resilience group. The findings suggest that resilience is a dynamic and multidimensional construct with highly heterogeneous developmental trajectories. Gratitude and perceived stress may be effective targets for interventions to enhance adolescent resilience.

Introduction: Few studies have simultaneously focused on the effects of marital conflict and marital intimacy on adolescent development, and little is known about the role of sibling relationships. Thus, this study examined the association between marital relationships and adolescent behavioral problems, including depressive symptoms and aggressive behavior. At the same time, we explored the mediating role of sibling hostility and sibling affection and the moderating effect of birth order in multichild families in China.Methods: Participants included 842 adolescents (Mage = 12.60, 46.2% boys) from Henan Province. Marital relationship, sibling relationship, birth order, depressive symptoms and aggressive behavior were assessed by a self-administered questionnaire. SEM was then used to examine the role of sibling relationships and birth order in the association between marital relationship and adolescent behavioral problems.Results: Our results showed that marital intimacy was negatively correlated with depressive symptoms and aggressive behavior, while marital conflict was positively correlated with them. Marital intimacy was associated with depressive symptoms and aggressive behavior through both sibling hostility and sibling affection. Marital conflict was indirectly associated with depressive symptoms and aggressive behavior through sibling hostility. In addition, the first-born adolescents were more sensitive to marital intimacy.Discussion: Given that the occurrence of adolescent behavioral problems is more common in contemporary society, our findings suggest that establishing a more intimate and warmer family atmosphere and promoting positive interactions between siblings may help control adolescent mental health problems.

To explore the influence and mechanism of parent-child relationship on adolescents’ problematic smartphone use, a sample of 3355 Chinese adolescents (M_age=16.93, SD = 0.49, range: 14–19 years old; 48% boys) is recruited to measure parent-child relationship, problematic smartphone use, personal growth initiative, and school belonging. The results are as follows. (1) After controlling for gender, age and time spent online per day, parent-child relationship is negatively correlated with problematic smartphone use, and the negative association between parent-child relationship and problematic smartphone use is mediated by the personal growth initiative. (2) The association between parent-child relationship and problematic smartphone use, the association between parent-child relationship and personal growth initiative, and the association between personal growth initiative and problematic smartphone use are all moderated by school belonging and are stronger in adolescents with a high level of school belonging. The present study highlights the mediating role of personal growth initiative and the moderating role of school belonging in the association between parent-child relationship and problematic smartphone use. This study also contributes to a better understanding of the effects, paths, and conditions of parent-child relationship on the problematic smartphone use of adolescents and provides constructive suggestions for preventing adolescents’ problematic smartphone use in the mobile Internet era.