Parental psychological control and adolescents depression during the COVID-19 pandemic: the mediating and moderating effect of self-concept clarity and mindfulness

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the mental health state of adolescents had caused widespread concern, especially the various problems caused by the relationship between adolescents and their parents in the long isolation at home. Based on the mindfulness reperceiving model and Rogers's Self-theory, this study aimed to explore the roles of adolescents' self-concept clarity and mindfulness level in the relationship between parental psychological control and adolescent depression. A total of 1,100 junior high school students from China completed the questionnaires regarding parental psychological control, depression, self-concept clarity, and mindfulness. Moderated mediation analyses suggest that parental psychological control affects adolescent depression via self-concept clarity. The association between parental psychological control and depression is moderated by self-concept clarity. The effect was stronger among adolescents with high mindfulness levels than those with low. This study suggests that it is necessary to consider both parental factors and adolescents' factors in the future. The interventions on self-concept or mindfulness may ameliorate adolescent mental problems more effectively.

The Relationship between Meaning in Life and Depression among Chinese Junior High School Students: The Mediating and Moderating Effects of Cognitive Failures and Mindfulness

“…The study used a 13-item version of the BDI compiled by American psychologist Beck AT (1974), revised by Zheng et al [ 55 ], tested with good reliability and validity, and has been widely used in Chinese adolescents [ 27 , 56 ]. Each item was scored with a 4-point score ranging from 0 to 3 (no such symptoms = 0; mild = 1; moderate = 2; severe = 3), with higher scores indicating higher depressive proneness and lower scores indicating lower depressive proneness.…”

“…It has been established that there is a significant correlation between cognitive failures and depression, and individuals who experience more cognitive failures have a higher level of depression [ 25 , 26 ]. Furthermore, repeated cognitive failures tend to cause negative self-evaluations [ 27 ], which can increase the risk of depression [ 28 ]. Conversely, the cognitive functions of depressed individuals, including processing speed, logical reasoning, attention, and executive function, will decline to varying degrees, which are also essential factors in triggering cognitive failures [ 29 ].…”

Parental Psychological Control and Depression in Chinese junior Middle School Students: A Moderated Mediation Model

“…Moreover, several studies have indicated that parental psychological control can in uence mental health through intermediary variables such as basic psychological needs, emotional regulation, and selfconcept [20][21][22]. According to the theory of individual-situation interaction, external situational factors can impact mental health by affecting individual traits [7].…”

Associations Between Parental Psychological Control and COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Negative Emotions: The Role of Resilience and Emotion Regulation

“…For example, family cohesion and parent-child relationships were confirmed to be associated with stress consequences during COVID-19 pandemic (Ye, Y. et al, 2022c;Zeng et al, 2021). Around 10% of college students had persistent and/or developed new mental health problems during the pandemic and low quality of family function were significant predictors of lower mental health (Li et al, 2021b(Li et al, , 2022. However, research focusing on risk factors of college student's mental health during COVID-19, especially the role of family, were still limited (Al-Omiri et al, 2021;Marchetti et al, 2020).…”