Authoritative Parenting, Self-regulation, and Psychological Adjustment in Asian American and European American Emerging Adults

• In Event: 3-181 - Exploring Moderating and Mediating Processes in the Links between Parenting and Ethnic Minority Youth’s Outcomes

Integrative Statement

The developmental period of emerging adulthood, characterized by exploration of life possibilities, can present increased risk for psychological distress (Arnett, 2006). Authoritative parenting (AP; warm, regulatory, and autonomy-supporting parenting) has been found to promote individuals’ mental health (Qauilino & Supple, 2001). However, mediating and moderating processes that underlie this association are understudied. Self-regulation, the ability to regulate emotions and behavior to achieve personal goals, is promoted by AP through parental support and guidance (Grolnick & Farkas, 2002) and associated with more positive psychological well-being (Simon & Bush, 2014). AP facilitates self-regulation among both Asian American and European American emerging adults (Shen et al., 2017); however, whether AP can decrease psychological distress through self-regulation within these two ethnic groups remains unclear. Additionally, conflictual relationships with parents can negate the benefits of AP by decreasing individuals’ motivation to internalize positive parenting messages (Darling & Steinberg, 1993). Thus, we examined whether: (1) AP was associated with reduced anxiety and depressive symptoms through self-regulation and (2) parent-child conflict moderated the associations between AP and self-regulation and psychological adjustment across Asian American and European American emerging adults.

Participants included 143 Asian American and 222 European American emerging adults (Mage=20.19, 70% female) who reported on their: (1) parents’ AP (Robinson et al., 2001; Cronbach’s α=.93); (2) self-regulation (Carey et al., 2004; Cronbach’s α=.89); (3) conflict with their parents (Furman & Buhrmester, 1985; Cronbach’s α=.83); (4) anxiety (Spielberger, 1983; Cronbach’s α=.93); and (5) depressive symptoms (Radloff, 1977; Cronbach’s α=.90).

Multigroup analysis in Mplus 6.11 (Muthen & Muthen, 2007) supported a moderated mediation for emerging adults in both ethnic groups. AP positively predicted self-regulation, which in turn, negatively predicted anxiety and depressive symptoms for both Asian American and European American emerging adults. Moreover, this indirect effect was moderated by parent-child conflict. For both groups, the indirect effects of AP on reduced anxiety and depressive symptoms through promoted self-regulation were only significant at low and mean levels of conflict with parents but not at high levels of conflict (Table 1). Moreover, for European Americans only, the direct effects of AP on both outcomes were also moderated by parent-child conflict, whereas there were no direct effect of AP or conflict with parents on emerging adults’ mental health.

For both groups of emerging adults, AP promoted their ability to regulate behavior and emotion in response to contextual demands to achieve personal goals, which was in turn associated with better mental health. However, a highly-conflictual relationship context may interfere with the internalization of warm and structuring parenting messages, leading to greater psychological distress. Moreover, for European American emerging adults only, authoritative parenting also uniquely and directly predicted their mental health at low levels of parent-child conflict. Thus, authoritative parenting may be particularly beneficial for European American emerging adults who may simultaneously be more negatively affected by conflictual relationships with parents than Asian Americans, perhaps because of the higher valuing of autonomy and independence in the European American culture versus the greater focus on familial interdependence in Asian cultures (Fuligni et al., 1999).

Authors

• Jillian J. Shen, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
  Presenting Author

• Xiaoli Zong, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jing Yu, NICHD
  Non-Presenting Author

• Charissa S. L. Cheah, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
  Non-Presenting Author