Leung Janet Tsin-Yee
Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong HJ402, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Nov 12;18(22):11887. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182211887.
Overparenting is an emerging parenting style in which parents over-protect their children from difficulties and challenges by intruding into their lives and providing extensive assistance to them. Unfortunately, longitudinal studies related to overparenting were severely lacking, particularly on its impacts on early adolescents. Moreover, studies examining the mediational pathways through which overparenting is associated with adolescent anxiety are scant. This study examined the mediating role of parent-child conflict (father-child and mother-child) in the relationship between overparenting (paternal and maternal) and adolescent anxiety over time.
Based on a three-wave longitudinal data of 1074 Chinese early adolescents in Hong Kong, the relationships among paternal and maternal overparenting, father- and mother-child conflict, and adolescent anxiety were assessed.
Mother-child conflict mediated the relationship between maternal overparenting and adolescent anxiety over time. Besides, a reverse association of prior adolescent anxiety with subsequent maternal overparenting via mother-child conflict was also identified. In addition, adolescent gender and family intactness did not moderate the relationships among overparenting, parent-child conflict, and adolescent anxiety.
This present study identified that the bidirectional relationship between maternal overparenting and adolescent anxiety via mother-child conflict over time, which sheds new light on the study of overparenting on adolescent well-being in the Chinese communities.
过度养育是一种新兴的养育方式，在这种方式中，父母通过干涉孩子的生活并为他们提供广泛的帮助，过度保护孩子免受困难和挑战。不幸的是，与过度养育相关的纵向研究严重缺乏，尤其是关于其对青少年早期的影响。此外，研究过度养育与青少年焦虑之间的中介途径的研究也很少。本研究考察了亲子冲突（父子和母子冲突）在过度养育（父亲和母亲的过度养育）与青少年焦虑随时间变化的关系中的中介作用。
基于对香港1074名中国青少年早期的三波纵向数据，评估了父亲和母亲的过度养育、父子和母子冲突以及青少年焦虑之间的关系。
随着时间的推移，母子冲突在母亲过度养育与青少年焦虑之间起中介作用。此外，还发现青少年先前的焦虑通过母子冲突与随后母亲的过度养育呈反向关联。此外，青少年性别和家庭完整性并未调节过度养育、亲子冲突和青少年焦虑之间的关系。
本研究发现了母亲过度养育与青少年焦虑之间随着时间通过母子冲突形成的双向关系，这为中国社区中过度养育对青少年幸福感的研究提供了新的视角。
