Katsantonis Ioannis G, Symonds Jennifer E, McLellan Ros
Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, 184 Hills Road, CB2 8PQ, Cambridge, UK.
Institute of Education, Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, London, UK.
Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health. 2024 Jul 15;18(1):85. doi: 10.1186/s13034-024-00777-1.
Past empirical evidence on the longitudinal relations between emotional mental health symptoms and parent-child close relationships has produced mixed and inconclusive results. Some studies suggest a unidirectional relation, whereas other studies point toward a bidirectional association. Additionally, most of the past research has been carried out with adolescent samples, rather than children. Hence, this study aimed to estimate the longitudinal relations between children's trait emotional difficulties and trait parent-child closeness, accounting for the time-invariant and time-varying state components of each factor.
Participants were 7,507 children (ages 3 years, 5 years, 7 years, and 9 years) from the Growing Up in Ireland cohort. Α bivariate stable trait, autoregressive trait, and state (STARTS) model was estimated using Bayesian structural equation modelling.
The STARTS model revealed that children's emotional difficulties and parent-child closeness were relatively stable across time, and these overarching traits were strongly negatively correlated. Children's earlier trait emotional difficulties predicted later trait parent-child closeness and vice versa between 3 years and 5 years, and between 5 years and 7 years, but these effects disappeared between 7 years and 9 years. At all pairs of time points, state emotional difficulties and state parent-child closeness were weakly negatively correlated.
Overall, the results suggest that early and middle childhood are critical stages for improving parent-child relationships and reducing children's emotional difficulties. Developing close parent-child relationships in childhood appears to be a key factor in reducing children's subsequent emotional difficulties. Children who face greater than usual emotional difficulties tend to be more withdrawn and less receptive to close parent-child relationships and this could serve as an important screening indicator.
过去关于情绪心理健康症状与亲子亲密关系之间纵向关系的实证证据得出了复杂且不确定的结果。一些研究表明存在单向关系，而其他研究则指向双向关联。此外，过去的大多数研究是针对青少年样本而非儿童进行的。因此，本研究旨在估计儿童特质情绪困扰与特质亲子亲密程度之间的纵向关系，同时考虑每个因素的时不变和时变状态成分。
参与者是来自爱尔兰成长队列的7507名儿童（3岁、5岁、7岁和9岁）。使用贝叶斯结构方程模型估计了双变量稳定特质、自回归特质和状态（STARTS）模型。
STARTS模型显示，儿童的情绪困扰和亲子亲密程度随时间相对稳定，并且这些总体特质呈强负相关。在3岁至5岁之间以及5岁至7岁之间，儿童早期的特质情绪困扰预测了后期的特质亲子亲密程度，反之亦然，但这些影响在7岁至9岁之间消失。在所有时间点对中，状态情绪困扰和状态亲子亲密程度呈弱负相关。
总体而言，结果表明幼儿期和童年中期是改善亲子关系和减少儿童情绪困扰的关键阶段。在童年时期建立亲密的亲子关系似乎是减少儿童后续情绪困扰的关键因素。面临比平常更大情绪困扰的儿童往往更孤僻，对亲密的亲子关系接受度更低，这可能是一个重要的筛查指标。
