Poster #59 - Effects of intrusive parenting on Korean adolescents’ depression and the role of extracurricular activities participation

• In Event: 1-061 - Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

The present study investigated the effects of intrusive parenting on Korean adolescents’ depression and explored whether these influence could be moderated by participation in extracurricular activities which could provide adolescents with an opportunities to have a sense of autonomy and control over themselves or to release psychological tension.
The participants of this study consisted of 2,080 Korean adolescents who were first graders at high schools from the 2012 panel fourth data of the Korea Children and Youth Panel survey. Depression and intrusive parenting were measured by the ten-item of the Symptom Checklist-90-Revision (Kim, Kim, & Won, 1984) and the four-item intrusive parenting subscale from Parenting Behaviors measure (Huh, 2000), respectively. The seven-items regarding extracurricular activities was used to assess how actively the adolescents participate in extracurricular activities, which included volunteer work, cultural and art experience, saving the environment, and so on. The data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics and hierarchical multiple regressions including the gender as a control variable.
The result indicated that the level of intrusive parenting (β = .23, p < .001) had a positive effect on adolescents’ depression, whereas participation in extracurricular activities (β = -.07, p < .01) decreased their depression. These findings suggested that it is important to educate parents in helping their child develop independency by encouraging them to have chances to express their thoughts and set their own goals, which may contribute to the decrease of adolescents’ depression. In addition, it would be effective to provide diverse extracurricular activities to adolescents. The result of the moderating effects of participation in extracurricular activities between intrusive parenting and depression was significant (β = .04, p < .05). The further analysis on the moderating effect of participation in extracurricular activities showed that, the negative influence of intrusive parenting on depression exacerbated when adolescents participated in more extracurricular activities, compared with the low participation in extracurricular activities group. This result might be due to the fact that parents with overbearing control is likely to even choose or micromanage their children’s extracurricular activities, thus prevent their child from satisfying their need for autonomy and competency, which in turn lead to depression. Therefore, it is thus necessary to understand that if parents intrude upon their child’s decisions and autonomy, extracurricular activities could be rather harmful, although extracurricular activities is protective factor to buffer depression. In other words, it suggested that it is important to make sure that extracurricular activities be a chance for adolescents to experience autonomy and competency, especially for adolescents living with intrusive parenting.

Authors

• So Chung Oh, Yonsei University
  Presenting Author

• Ju Hee Park, Yonsei University
  Non-Presenting Author