Economic Hardship, Parent Positive Communication and Mental Health in Urban Adolescents Seeking Outpatient Psychiatric Care

Abstract

Economic hardship and poor parenting behaviors are associated with increased risk for mental health problems in community adolescents. However, less is known about the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) and parenting behaviors on youth at elevated risk for mental health problems, such as teens seeking outpatient psychiatric care. This study examined whether family SES and parent positive communication were directly and indirectly associated with mental health symptoms six months later in urban teens seeking outpatient treatment, after accounting for baseline levels of symptoms. At baseline, adolescent participants (N = 346; 42% female; 61% African-American) ages 12 to 19 years old (M = 14.9; SD = 1.8) and their primary caregivers reported on SES and teen internalizing and externalizing symptoms and engaged in a videotaped discussion of a real-life conflict to assess parent positive communication. At 6-month follow-up, 81% (N = 279) of families were retained and teens and caregivers again reported internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypothesized models with a sample of 338, using the full information likelihood method to adjust for missing data. For parent-reported externalizing symptoms, SEM revealed support for the indirect association of SES with follow-up externalizing symptoms via parent positive communication and externalizing symptoms at baseline. For parent reported internalizing symptoms, there was a direct association between SES and follow-up internalizing symptoms, but not an indirect effect via parent positive communication. Youth-reported symptoms were not associated with SES nor with parent positive communication. Current findings extend prior research on adolescent mental health in a diverse sample of urban youth seeking outpatient psychiatric care. These families may benefit from interventions that directly target SES-related difficulties and parent positive communication.

Poverty and Mental Health Outcomes in Mexican Adolescents

“…Our findings about family functioning perceived social support and resilience in poor Mexican youth [76] showed significant main effects of both, family functioning (F = 18.60; p < 0.01) and perceived social support (F = 11.71; p < 0.05) on resilience. In concordance with previous data [14,28,73,75], mother's level of education, father's occupation, adolescent's daily spending money, conflict family, and friend perceived social support were predictors of resilience by using logistic regression analyses.…”

“…Multiple regression analysis showed that the Rejection and Control of both parents were positive predictors whereas the Mother's Warmth predicted negatively: Internalizing (R 2 = 0.297; p = 0.035), Externalizing (R 2 = 0.275; p = 0.001) and Mixed Syndromes (R 2 = 0.289; p = 0.000). Preliminary conclusion suggests that negative parenting leads to negative outcomes as internalized problems, whereas positive parenting is a predictor of better psychological adjustment as has been reported previously [72][73][74][75].…”

“…This integral model incorporates processes of an adolescent, his or her parents and his or her family context, which has to a certain level an impact in the internalized problems of the adolescent. A set of family variables such as communication, social support, and parenting practices has been related to positive and negative outcomes (e.g., anxiety, depression, aggressive behavior) [73,74].…”

“…In contrast with risk factors, family support (parental) often offered by the mother, is a source of protection for those adolescents with psychosocial risks and due to its protective character is also one of the strongest predictors of resilience [28,73,75]. Although a good part of the evidence that family connectedness are one of the strongest protective factors in mental health, comes from the U.K., Canada, and U.S., this phenomena is being confirmed in other cultures [24].…”

Can Mother–Daughter Communication Buffer Adolescent Risk for Mental Health Problems Associated With Maternal Depressive Symptoms?

“…In line with the possibility that communication may facilitate or buffer intergenerational psychopathology risk, worse parent-adolescent communication has been associated with higher externalizing symptoms among urban youth seeking mental health services (Rodriguez, Nichols, Javdani, Emerson, & Donenberg, 2013). For African American mothers and adolescents, poor communication is associated with more youth depressive symptoms (Taylor & Seaton, 2008), and better communication predicts fewer youth problem behaviors (Smetana, Crean, & Daddis, 2002).…”