Poster #59 - Retrospectively Recalled Parental Psychological Control and Depression in Adulthood: Mediating Role of Self-Control

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

Parental psychological control is control of children’s behaviors, thoughts, and attitudes through psychological invasion and inspection of children’s thinking processes, self-expressions, and emotions (Barber, 1996; Mills et al., 2007) and is linked to negative outcomes concurrently and longitudinally, in adulthood years (Ballash et al., 2006). One such negative outcome is depression in adulthood. Previous studies showed that individuals whose parents were psychologically controlling in early childhood are more susceptible to depression in adulthood years (Barber, 1996). However, the mechanism through which early parental psychological control is related to later depression is not clearly defined. Since self control is an important predictor for depression (Roth et al., 1982; Tangney et al., 2004) and is a factor that is negatively influenced by early psychological control (Li et al., 2013), early parental psychological control in later depression might be mediated by self-control. Similarly, Finkenauer et al. (2005) found that self-control was a partial mediator for the link between parental behaviors (including psychological control) and emotional and behavioral problems in adolescents (including depression). Current study aimed to extend these findings to adulthood years and investigate the mediational role of self-control in the link between parental psychological control in early childhood and depression in young adulthood, via a retrospective study. Data was collected from 83 university students (Mage=20.96, SD=2.06, range=18-30; 68 female) in Turkey. Via questionnaires, participants were asked to recall their mothers’ use of psychological control retrospectively, when they were between 5-10-years-old. We again used questionnaires to assess concurrent self-control and depression. Self-control was measured with three basic sub-dimensions: redressive (self-control over one’s emotions, pains, and cognitions to achieve an identified goal), reformative (self-control over one’s behaviors that guide change processes), and experiential (self-control allowing to fully experience enjoyable activities such as art, music) (Rosenbaum, 1980; Rosenbaum, 1993). Correlational analyses showed that all of the study variables (except from reformative self-control subscale) had significant correlations amongst each other (with rs ranging from -.44 to .35, p<.05). We conducted path analysis (MPlus 6.12) to investigate the role of retrospective psychological control in concurrent depression and to investigate the possible mediating role of different sub-dimensions of concurrent self-control in this association. Since age had a significant correlation with depression (r=.26, p<.05), we added age as a control variable. Results showed an appropriate fit to the data; x2(3, N=83)=.93, ns., CFI=1.00, RMSEA=.00 (90% CI=.00-.11). Both reformative (B=-.25, p<.05) and experiential (B=-.38, p<.001) self-control predicted depression, while redressive self-control was not related (B=.08, ns). Psychological control predicted reformative (B=-.22, p<.05) and experiential (B=-.40, p<.001), but not redressive (B=-.18, p<.10) self-control. Psychological control did not have a direct role in depression (B=11, ns), yet it had an indirect role via experiential control 2019. The results showed that the role of early psychological control on later depression was fully mediated by self-control, specifically by experiential self-control. These findings suggest that one mechanism through which early psychological control might influence later emotional problems is via influencing later self-control capacities.

Authors

• Reyhan İkan, MEF University
  Presenting Author

• Melis Yavuz, MEF University
  Non-Presenting Author

• İlksen Bostanci, MEF University
  Non-Presenting Author