Parent-Adolescent Conversations’ Effects on Adolescents' Social-Emotional Development and School Engagement: Ethnic and Cultural Contexts

• In Event: Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Study Objective

As they enter middle school, adolescents face increased social and academic challenges that interfere with their emotional well-being. Parental support protects adolescents from depression and risky behaviors (Ackard et al., 2006) and conversations about problems are key aspects of parental support. Yet little is known about which dimensions of those conversations have the greatest impact and how those dimensions vary across cultures/ethnic groups. Furthermore, research on the mediators through which conversations affect adolescent outcomes is sparse. Emotional socialization theory suggests that parents shape children’s emotional competence through conversations (Denham, Bassett, & Wyatt, 2014). Emotional competence may reduce depressive symptoms and improve school engagement (Saarni, 1991). Situational optimism has also been found to reduce depressive symptoms in adolescents and can be nurtured by parents in parent-adolescent conversations (Carvajal, 2012).

Hypotheses
1. Parent-adolescent conversation quality (openness, parental validation) are positively related to adolescent social-emotional outcomes (depressive symptoms, school engagement).
2. Adolescents’ emotional competence and situational optimism mediate relations between conversation quality and adolescent social-emotional outcomes.
3. These models vary by ethnic group identity.

Method

Participants include 300 middle-school students (11-15 years) who live in the same household with at least one parent. Students will complete questionnaires on Qualtrics for approximately 30 minutes. These questionnaires measure conversational openness with mother and with father (PACS: Barnes & Olson, 1982), maternal and paternal validation (PACI; Noller & Bagi, 1985), emotional competence (SPEC; Mikolajczak et al., 2014), situational optimism (YLOT; Ey et al., 2005), ethnic identity (MEIM; Phinney, 1992), depressive symptoms (CES-D; Radloff, 1977), and school engagement (SSEM, Hazel et al., 2013).

Data Analysis Plan

We will test four path models using Stata’s SEM Builder, two for each outcome (depressive symptoms, school engagement) and two for each predictor (conversation openness, parental validation). These models propose an indirect path from each conversational dimension to each outcome through the mediators of optimism and emotional competence (see Figure 1). To test whether our hypothesized models are equivalent across ethnic groups, we will conduct multi-group SEM using a maximum likelihood method that accounts for missing values (Acock, 2013). Model fit will be evaluated with the use of several fit indices: χ2, comparative fit index (CFI), root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA), and Akaike information criterion (AIC).

Implications

This study will contribute to our limited knowledge of emotional socialization processes during adolescence. The results will suggest specific dimensions of parent-adolescent conversations that influence adolescents’ social-emotional development. Parents may utilize this knowledge when responding to their adolescents’ concerns and providing emotional support during conversations.

Feasibility

This study has been approved by our university IRB and by a large, urban, ethnically diverse school district. Thus far, we have collected 125 parental consent forms from one middle school and are poised to collect consent forms from a second very large middle school (1,445 students). We are also pursuing two additional middle schools in the area. We will begin data collection by late October and expect to have finished data collection by December 31 and data analyses by March 1.

Authors

• Marie-Anne Suizzo, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author

• Cambrian Nauman, Texas State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Shamecca Perkins, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kevin Silva, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author