Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, PR China.
Student Mental Health Education and Counseling Center, Shaanxi Energy Institute, Xi'an, Shaanxi, PR China.
J Affect Disord. 2024 Dec 1;366:153-161. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.08.178. Epub 2024 Aug 28.
Exposure to fathers' positive parenting has been associated reducing mental disorder symptoms during adolescence, evidence on the mechanisms underlying this association is lacking. One potential mechanism linking fathers' positive parenting and mental disorders is environmental sensitivity (ES). Here we studied whether the increased positive behaviors of both parents (1) separately, (2) relatively, (3) and jointly predict reduced depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, suicidal ideation (SI), and increased well-being in Chinese adolescents. Additionally we investigated (4) whether ES moderates these relationships.
This study involving 7010 Chinese adolescents (55.6 % girls) aged 15 to 18 from six junior high schools in Shaanxi, China was conducted at four timepoints. ES was assessed using the Highly Sensitive Child (HSC) scale at ages 15 and 16, parental positive behaviors using the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) at ages 16 and 17, and psychopathology symptoms using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and Positive and Negative Suicide Ideation (PANSI) Inventory at ages 17 and 18.
(1) Multilevel analyses revealed that increased positive parenting predicted reduced psychiatric disorder symptoms and improved well-being; (2) trend interaction indicated that the compensatory effect of fathers' positive parenting was stronger in alleviating mental problems in adolescents than that of mothers'; (3) Simple slope analyses suggested that both high levels of fathers' and mothers' positive parenting predicted fewer subsequent psychiatric disorder symptoms, particularly for sensitive adolescents.
This study was limited to its generalizability to the Western Chinese adolescents.
Substantial differences in the effects of positive paternal and maternal parenting highlight the important role of fathers' positive parenting in mental development, especially for highly sensitive adolescents.
父亲积极的育儿方式与青少年时期精神障碍症状的减少有关，但缺乏这种关联的潜在机制的证据。将父亲积极的育儿方式与精神障碍联系起来的一个潜在机制是环境敏感性（ES）。在这里，我们研究了父母双方（1）分别增加的积极行为，（2）相对增加的积极行为，（3）以及联合增加的积极行为是否可以预测中国青少年抑郁、注意缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）症状、自杀意念（SI）的减少和幸福感的增加。此外，我们还研究了（4）ES 是否调节这些关系。
本研究涉及中国陕西省六所初中的 7010 名 15 至 18 岁的青少年（55.6%为女生），在四个时间点进行。在 15 岁和 16 岁时使用高度敏感儿童（HSC）量表评估 ES，在 16 岁和 17 岁时使用父母养育方式量表（PBI）评估父母的积极行为，在 17 岁和 18 岁时使用 9 项患者健康问卷（PHQ-9）、长处与困难问卷（SDQ）和积极与消极自杀意念（PANSI）量表评估精神病理学症状。
（1）多层次分析显示，积极的育儿方式可以预测精神障碍症状的减轻和幸福感的提高；（2）趋势交互表明，父亲积极的育儿方式在缓解青少年精神问题方面的补偿效应强于母亲；（3）简单斜率分析表明，父亲和母亲高水平的积极育儿方式都预示着随后较少出现精神障碍症状，特别是对高敏感的青少年。
本研究的局限性在于其推广到西方中国青少年的普遍性。
积极的父性和母性育儿方式的显著差异突出了父亲积极育儿方式在精神发展中的重要作用，特别是对高度敏感的青少年。
