Parental Psychological Control and Autonomy Support and Associations with Child Maltreatment and Adolescents' Mental Health Problems

Purpose Parental psychological control and autonomy support, abuse, and neglect influence adolescents' mental health. Analyzing the direct and indirect associations between childrearing characteristics, maltreatment, and mental health is important, especially in understudied and diverse cultural contexts. First, we examine the associations of parental psychological control and autonomy support with adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems directly and indirectly, through maltreatment. Second, we evaluate the extent to which parental psychological control and autonomy support may discriminate self-reported maltreatment in adolescents. Methods Eight-hundred-and-nine-adolescents (M-age = 13.5) from six urban public middle schools in Mexico City participated and responded to the self-administered Perceived Parental Autonomy Support Scale and the ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool for each parental figure and the Youth Self Report for evaluation of internalizing and externalizing problems. Results Maternal models obtained the best fit [R-2 = .380, for internalizing, and R-2 = .229, for externalizing problems], with strongest indirect effects through maternal negligence for internalizing problems [x(2)(2) = 1.729, rho = .4212, RMSEA = .000 (.000, .067), CFI = .999, TLI = .999] and through maternal psychological abuse for externalizing problems [x(2)(2) = 1.666, rho = .4347, RMSEA = .000 (.000, .066), CFI = .999, TLI = .999]. Parental psychological control and autonomy support discriminate self-reported maltreatment with an area under the curve between .68 and .99. Conclusions Maternal models showed an association of parental childrearing characteristics with adolescent mental health problems directly and indirectly through maltreatment, and preliminary evidence suggests that parental childrearing characteristics may discriminate self-reported maltreatment in adolescents.