Yang Meirong, Meng Zhaoyan, Qi Huan, Duan Xiangfei, Zhang Libin
School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, Hebei, China.
School of Educational Science, Ludong University, Yantai, Shandong, China.
Front Psychol. 2022 Sep 30;13:857878. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.857878. eCollection 2022.
The present longitudinal study used the traditional cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) and autoregressive latent trajectory model with structured residuals (ALT-SR) to examine the relationships between perceived interparental conflict (IPC), negative thinking (NT), and depression symptoms in Chinese children. Changes in these three variables over time were also examined, as well as the trait and state aspects of the relationships between them. A sample of 516 third-grade primary students completed questionnaires about IPC, NT, and depression three times over a period of 1 year, at 6-month intervals. The CLPM findings indicated that, assuming that stability of each variable across time was controlled, Chinese children's perception of IPC significantly affected their level of depression through the mediating path of NT. After taking trait factors into account, among all the significant autoregressive and cross-lagged paths originally found in the CLPM, only one third remained significant in the ALT-SR model. More specifically, the ALT-SR model, revealed a driving effect of children's NT on perceived IPC and depression symptoms. The CLPM model although elucidated the interplay among three variables, the ALT-SR model showed little evidence of their interrelated growth across time. Taken together, these results indicate that children's perceived IPC in the long term are a stable trait, with few state-level fluctuations, and is not a significant within-person predictor of subsequent children's internalization problems. These perceptions appear to contribute more to children's general psychological tendency than do changes over time. The research is the first to test the reciprocal relationships between Chinese children's perceived IPC, NT, and depression symptoms. The findings demonstrate that previously proposed theories about the bidirectional relation between IPC and children's social adjustment, to some extent, may reflect a correlation at a trait level. Put another way, it is IPC's central tendency to be sensitive in the long term as a stable trait that is associated with their children's general tendency to show well adjustment. The study contributes to our understanding of that extend previous results and have implications for complementary theoretical and practical interventions. The complementary techniques of CLPM and ALT-SR models offer different insights into children's internalization problems, and hold promise for supporting the building of more comprehensive children's developmental theories that acknowledge the interconnectedness of different domains of mental health.
本纵向研究采用传统交叉滞后面板模型（CLPM）和具有结构化残差的自回归潜变量轨迹模型（ALT-SR），来考察中国儿童感知到的父母间冲突（IPC）、消极思维（NT）和抑郁症状之间的关系。同时也考察了这三个变量随时间的变化，以及它们之间关系的特质和状态方面。516名小学三年级学生组成的样本在1年时间里每隔6个月完成一次关于IPC、NT和抑郁的问卷调查，共三次。CLPM的研究结果表明，假设各变量随时间的稳定性得到控制，中国儿童对IPC的感知通过NT的中介路径显著影响其抑郁水平。在考虑特质因素后，在CLPM中最初发现的所有显著的自回归和交叉滞后路径中，只有三分之一在ALT-SR模型中仍然显著。更具体地说，ALT-SR模型揭示了儿童的NT对感知到的IPC和抑郁症状的驱动作用。CLPM模型虽然阐明了三个变量之间的相互作用，但ALT-SR模型几乎没有显示出它们随时间的相关增长。综上所述，这些结果表明，儿童长期感知到的IPC是一种稳定的特质，状态水平波动较小，并不是随后儿童内化问题的显著个体内预测因素。这些认知似乎对儿童的一般心理倾向的贡献大于随时间的变化。该研究首次检验了中国儿童感知到的IPC、NT和抑郁症状之间的相互关系。研究结果表明，先前提出的关于IPC与儿童社会适应之间双向关系的理论，在一定程度上可能反映了特质水平的相关性。换句话说，长期以来，IPC作为一种稳定特质具有敏感的中心倾向，这与他们孩子表现出良好适应的一般倾向相关。该研究有助于扩展我们之前的研究结果，对补充理论和实践干预具有启示意义。CLPM和ALT-SR模型的互补技术为儿童内化问题提供了不同的见解，并有望支持构建更全面的儿童发展理论，承认心理健康不同领域的相互联系。
