Parental psychological control, adolescent self-criticism, and adolescent depressive symptoms: A latent change modeling approach in Belgian adolescents

Objective At the level of both between-person differences and within-person changes across time, parental achievement-oriented psychological control may influence the development of adolescent self-criticism, which in turn may increase vulnerability for adolescent depression. MethodResultsIn a two-wave prospective study of 368 adolescents (age 13-17 years), Latent Change Modeling was used with Belgian adolescents' self-report measures. For mothers and fathers separately, adolescent self-criticism intervened in associations between achievement-oriented psychological control and adolescent depressive symptoms, at the level of both between-person differences and within-person changes. When investigating parents simultaneously, only maternal parenting was related directly and indirectly to adolescent depressive symptoms. ConclusionsOur results underscore the importance of personality-related vulnerability in associations between the parenting environment and symptoms of psychopathology during adolescent development.