Emotion-driven or relationship-driven? Longitudinal associations between insecure parent-child attachment, perceived family support and depressive symptoms among Chinese adolescents

Insecure parent-child attachment is often observed in adolescents with depressive symptoms. However, the directionality of the association between insecure parent-child attachment and depressive symptoms, as well as the potential mechanisms of family support, is not clearly understood. This study investigated the reciprocal longitudinal associations between insecure parent-child attachment (i.e. attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety), perceived family support, and depressive symptoms. A total of 1535 Chinese adolescents (52.6% being boys; baseline Mage = 13.19 years, SD = 0.51) participated in a four-wave longitudinal study with 6-month intervals. Random intercept cross-lagged panel models were employed to disentangle the between- and within-family effects. The results indicated that there was a vicious cycle in which attachment avoidance and depressive symptoms reinforced each other. Furthermore, an increase in depressive symptoms significantly predicted a decrease in perceived family support over time, subsequently leading to higher levels of both attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety. These findings suggest the coexistence of emotion-driven processes (from depressive symptoms to attachment avoidance) and relationship-driven processes (from attachment avoidance to depressive symptoms). Additionally, psychotherapists and family therapists are advised to enhance adolescents' perceived family support to nip depressive symptoms in the bud, therefore preventing subsequent insecure parent-child attachments.