Hongjian Cao

The linking mechanisms underlying associations between early adversities and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms related to major public health crises remain unclear. Grounded in the stress process model, the present study examined the potential mediating roles of mindfulness and various forms of emotion regulation strategies (general: cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression; self-care specific: self-compassion) in the associations between victimization by family members and peers (childhood psychological maltreatment and peer victimization) and COVID-19 PTSD symptoms among adolescents. Three-wave survey data were collected from 844 Chinese junior high school students (51.7% boys, M_age = 13.21 years old, SD = .39) in the COVID-19 context (December 2020 to June 2022). The second-wave and the third-wave data were collected 6 months and 1.5 years later from the baseline, respectively. Childhood psychological maltreatment and peer victimization were associated with COVID-19 PTSD symptoms through either mindfulness or self-compassion. A sequential mediating pathway from mindfulness to self-compassion was identified. In contrast, no mediating pathways involving cognitive reappraisal or expressive suppression were identified. Early victimization by family members and peers as primary stressors may contribute to subsequent PTSD symptoms in challenging life contexts due to major public health crises (e.g., the pandemic) through proliferating into secondary stressors of impeded mindfulness and self-compassion. Self-care-specific emotion regulation strategies may uniquely matter more above and beyond the general emotion regulation strategies in explaining such associations. Trainings that facilitate mindfulness and self-compassion could be potential avenues to reduce the deleterious implications of early adversities for later psychological well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Grounded in the cognitive‐affective models of anxiety and the emotion socialization theory, the present study aimed to examine how adolescents' anxiety symptoms may moderate the associations of parental earlier responses to adolescents' negative emotions with the subsequent adolescent‐parent relationship quality, and whether the moderating roles of adolescents' anxiety would be mediated by adolescents' appraisals of parental responses. Two‐wave longitudinal data were obtained from 335 Chinese adolescent‐parent dyads (41.8% boys, M _age = 16.08 years; 72.2% mothers, M _age = 42.05 years). Results of mediated moderation model analyses indicated that adolescent anxiety symptoms (Time 1) negatively predicted adolescents' positive appraisals of supportive responses and didactic talk responses to adolescents' negative emotions (Time 2). Nevertheless, adolescent anxiety symptoms (Time 1) only moderated the association between parental didactic talk and teaching (Time 1) and parent–adolescent relationship quality (Time 2), such that didactic talk and teaching predicted better subsequent relationship quality only among adolescents with low levels of anxiety symptoms. This moderation effect was partially explained by adolescents' appraisals of didactic talk and teaching, as adolescents with lower levels of anxiety symptoms tended to interpret this response more benignly, which, in turn, predicted better subsequent parent–adolescent relationship quality. In conclusion, the relational implications of parental didactic talk and teaching may depend partly on adolescents' anxiety symptoms and their appraisals of such parental responses, highlighting the importance of considering adolescents' individual characteristics and subjective interpretations in parental emotion socialization.

Parental psychological control (PPC) has long been proposed as a salient risk factor for adolescent depressive symptoms (ADS). However, findings from prior studies are inconsistent regarding how PPC and ADS may interplay with each other over time. They mostly treat PPC as if it is a monolithic entity rather than a collection of discrete elements with possibly different effects. A majority of them also fail to distinguish between‐person effects from within‐person effects. Leveraging four‐wave, longitudinal data from 962 Chinese adolescents (45.1% boys, M _age = 12.369, SD = 0.699 at Time 1), we sought to delineate the patterns of interplay between PPC and ADS, while distinguishing between‐person intercepts and slopes from within‐person cross‐lagged effects. When doing so, we differentiated PPC into five separate components (i.e., relationship‐oriented guilt induction, social comparison shaming, shared shame, love withdrawal, and harsh psychological control). Most importantly, results at the within‐person level indicated that despite concurrent positive associations between all forms of PPC and ADS at each time point, cross‐lagged positive associations across waves were identified only for parental harsh psychological control, and such cross‐lagged associations were reciprocal over time. Notably, these within‐person effects remained even after applying multiple‐testing corrections and controlling for adolescents' academic achievement across waves. Our findings highlight the importance of approaching the dynamic implications of PPC for adolescent well‐being from a differentiated, multidimensional perspective, which would help reveal nuances that have been obscured in prior studies and better inform the design of more targeted interventions.

Parents play an important role in adolescents' gratitude development, yet little is known about whether and how fluctuations in parents' gratitude (i.e., gratitude lability) over time are associated with adolescents' socioemotional adjustment. Using three‐wave data spanning 16 months, this study examined the longitudinal associations between parents' gratitude lability and adolescents' socioemotional outcomes, including depressive symptoms, life satisfaction, and prosocial behaviors, in 537 Chinese parent–adolescent dyads ( M _{Child age} = 10.25 years, SD = 0.69; 57.3% girls). Adolescents' gratitude lability was tested as a possible explanatory mechanism, and adolescent gender was examined as a moderator. Results showed that parents' gratitude lability was positively associated with adolescents' gratitude lability across waves, which in turn was related to adolescents' depressive symptoms and prosocial behaviors. Furthermore, for girls, parents' gratitude lability was indirectly associated with adolescents' prosocial behaviors via adolescents' gratitude lability. However, for boys, this indirect effect was nonsignificant. These findings underscore the value of a dynamic perspective for understanding the intergenerational transmission of gratitude and its developmental correlates. Future intervention research may benefit from examining whether more consistent parental expressions of gratitude can support adolescents' stable gratitude development, well‐being, and prosociality.

Sexual and gender minority youth of color (SGM YOC) face compounded mental health disparities due to oppression experienced at the intersection of racism, cissexism, and heterosexism. Parental responses to youth's sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) are critical in shaping youth mental health outcomes, yet prior research has often simplified these responses into a unidimensional acceptance–rejection continuum. Using data from the 2022 LGBTQ National Teen Survey ( n = 3187 SGM YOC), this study challenged such an oversimplified conceptualization by exploring heterogeneous patterns of parental responses to children's SOGI among SGM YOC. Further, we also examined the distinct implications of each identified profile for SGM YOC's mental health problems and how the association between intersectional microaggressions and mental health problems might vary across the identified profiles. Three distinct SOGI‐specific parental response profiles were found: High Rejection Low Acceptance Response (24.10%), Low Rejection Low Acceptance Response (50.30%), and Low Rejection High Acceptance Response (25.60%). Profile membership varied by race/ethnicity, sex assigned at birth, gender identity, sexual orientation, and caregiver education level. Youth in the High Rejection Low Acceptance Response profile reported significantly higher levels of mental health problems compared with those in the Low Rejection Low Acceptance Response and Low Rejection High Acceptance Response profiles. SOGI‐specific parental response profile membership moderated the association between intersectional microaggressions and mental health problems. Intersectional microaggressions were more strongly associated with mental health problems among youth in the Low Rejection Low Acceptance Response profile than among those in the High Rejection Low Acceptance Response profile, with higher overall mental health problems in the latter profile. By identifying diverse patterns of SOGI‐specific parental responses and the differential consequences for understanding how SGM YOC's intersectional minority stress relates to mental well‐being, our findings underscore the importance of culturally responsive interventions that engage parental figures as active agents of affirmation, support, and socialization, ultimately fostering SGM YOC's positive development amid intersecting systems of oppression.

The transition to parenthood often involves heightened and fluctuating interparental conflict, which may affect parenting and child outcomes. This study followed 212 primiparous mothers (Mean_age = 25.3, SD = 5.5; 63% European American) and infants from pregnancy to age 2, examining whether interparental conflict lability (prenatal, 6 months, and 1 year) predicted infant behavioral problems (2 years) via maternal sensitivity to distress and nondistress (1 year), and whether infant negative affect (6 months and 1 year) moderated these pathways. Greater conflict lability predicted lower maternal sensitivity. Sensitivity to nondistress mediated the associations with internalizing problems, and predicted fewer externalizing problems among infants with low negative affect but more externalizing problems among infants with extreme negative affect. Implications are also discussed. Becoming parents often strains couple relationships. Following 212 first-time mothers and their infants from pregnancy through 2 years postpartum, we found that when interparental conflict fluctuated more greatly across transition to parenthood (ToP), mothers tended to be less prompt and warm in mother-infant interactions. Lowered sensitivity mothers displayed when freely playing with infants explained why greater fluctuation in couple conflict predicted children's more anxious or withdrawn behaviors when reaching toddlerhood. For toddlers’ acting-out problems (e.g., aggression), maternal sensitive parenting in free play predicted fewer problems among infants with low affective difficulty, but more problems among infants with extreme affective difficulty. Reducing couple relational turbulence is important during ToP, which likely promotes caregiving quality, thereby benefiting child development in early years.

Introduction: Family emotional expressiveness (FEE) is an important manifestation of parental emotion socialization that influences children's socioemotional development. However, previous research examining FEE and social skills from the perspective of parental emotion socialization has primarily focused on socioemotional skills and has simply treated FEE as a global construct. More importantly, whether parental emotion socialization can spill over to other social systems (e.g., friendship) and form a reciprocal association with them remains unknown. Methods: Using data from 901 children ( M _age = 8.41, SD = 0.50, 50.9% female) in the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD SECCYD), this study examined the reciprocal associations among positive and negative FEE, social skills, and friendship quality. The potential gender differences were also examined. Results: Results showed that positive FEE predicted later social skills and vice versa only among girls. Moreover, for girls, positive FEE was related positively to the subsequent friendship quality via social skills whereas this indirect effect was not observed among boys. Moreover, boys' friendship quality—but not girls'—was negatively associated with negative FEE over time. Conclusions: This study highlights that parental emotion socialization appears to be particularly effective for girls, as positive FEE provides a foundation for girls' subsequent social skills and the formation and maintenance of high‐quality friendships. However, for boys, friendship is the important source of social support during this developmental stage and can mitigate negative emotional dynamics within their families. These findings offer new insights for gender‐specific socialization interventions from middle childhood to early adolescence.