School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington/Te Herenga Waka, Wellington, New Zealand.
J Adolesc. 2023 Jun;95(4):764-783. doi: 10.1002/jad.12152. Epub 2023 Mar 9.
Robust research links qualities of parent-child discussions about past emotion-laden events to socioemotional development and broader psychological outcomes during childhood. The role of parent-adolescent reminiscing in adolescent psychological adjustment, however, has received less attention, despite adolescence being a time of heightened vulnerability for the development of internalizing symptoms. In the current multimethod study, we investigated cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between the qualities of conversations between mothers and adolescents (ages 13-16) and adolescents' internalizing problems.
Participants were 67 mother-adolescent dyads (total N = 134, 58.8% of youth identified as female) located across regions of New Zealand/Aotearoa. Each dyad discussed a past shared conflict, coded for supportive and unsupportive reminiscing conversational qualities with an adapted dyadic coding scheme. Youth internalizing symptoms were assessed at two-time points, 12-month apart.
Dyadic structural equation modeling analyzed cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between conversational qualities and adolescents' internalizing problems. Findings indicated concurrent associations between unsupportive mother-adolescent reminiscing qualities and heightened youth anxiety symptoms: Specifically, mothers' avoidance and lower levels of emotion discussion and adolescents' emotional disengagement were linked to greater youth anxiety symptoms. Moreover, increases in youth anxiety symptoms 12 months later were weaker for youth who engaged in greater levels of the supportive reminiscing qualities of balanced emotion discussion and active problem-solving.
These novel findings highlight the transactional nature and complex dynamics of reminiscing during adolescence and their relationship with youth mental health, which has implications for theory and clinical practice.
强有力的研究将父母与孩子讨论过去情绪事件的质量与儿童时期的社会情感发展和更广泛的心理结果联系起来。然而，尽管青春期是内化症状发展的脆弱时期，但父母与青少年之间回忆的作用在青少年心理适应方面却受到较少关注。在当前的多方法研究中，我们调查了母亲和青少年（年龄在 13-16 岁之间）之间对话的质量与青少年内化问题之间的横断面和纵向关联。
参与者是 67 对母子（总共 134 人，其中 58.8%的青少年被确定为女性），分布在新西兰/奥特亚罗瓦的各个地区。每个对子讨论了过去的一次共同冲突，并使用改编的对偶编码方案对支持性和非支持性回忆对话质量进行了编码。青少年的内化症状在相隔 12 个月的两个时间点进行评估。
对偶结构方程模型分析了对话质量与青少年内化问题之间的横断面和纵向关系。研究结果表明，非支持性的母子回忆质量与青少年焦虑症状之间存在同期关联：具体而言，母亲的回避以及情绪讨论水平较低和青少年的情绪脱离与青少年焦虑症状加剧有关。此外，12 个月后青少年焦虑症状的增加对于参与更广泛的支持性回忆质量（平衡情绪讨论和积极解决问题）的青少年来说较弱。
这些新发现强调了青少年时期回忆的交互性质和复杂动态及其与青年心理健康的关系，这对理论和临床实践具有重要意义。
