1. Puberty Moderates Effects of the Parent-Child Relationship on
Adolescents’ Internalizing Symptoms
Meredith A. Henry and Sylvie Mrug
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Introduction
Measures (cont.)
Results (cont.)
Early timing and faster tempo of pubertal development are risk factors for
internalizing and externalizing problems (Marceau et al., 2001).
Parenting and parent-child relationship quality play important roles in both internalizing and externalizing problems (Gaertner, Fite, & Colder, 2010).
For instance, controlling parenting contributes to internalizing symptoms in childhood and adolescence, while warmth/nurturance, respect for autonomy, and other positive strategies are linked with better psychosocial health in adolescence (Bayer et al, 2006).
Early pubertal timing increases adolescents’ susceptibility to negative
environmental influences such as poor parenting.
Specifically, harsh/inconsistent parental discipline has been linked to increased externalizing problems in early maturers (Ge et al., 2002).
It is unknown whether pubertal timing moderates the role of parenting
in internalizing symptoms.
Additionally, no studies investigated pubertal tempo as a moderator of environmental influences on adolescent development.
Previous studies of puberty and parenting relied on child and parent reports of parenting; it is important to include more objective measures.
The purpose of the current study is to examine whether pubertal timing and tempo moderate prospective effects of the parent-child relationship on internalizing problems in adolescence.
Neither parent-child relationship factors at age 11 nor pubertal timing or
tempo uniquely predicted age 15 internalizing problems.
However, pubertal timing interacted with several parenting factors in
predicting mother-reported internalizing problems:
Maternal respect for autonomy (β = -.57, p<.05)
Stimulation of cognitive development (β = -.43, p <.05)
Child’s Affection for the Mother (β = -.53, p<.05)
Affective Mutuality/Felt Security (β = -.54, p<.05)
Specifically, more positive parent-child interactions predicted
lower levels of internalizing difficulties for children with
later onset of puberty, but not those with early or on-time pubertal onset.
Pubertal development:
Trained nurses assessed children’s pubertal development through 5 Tanner
stages of pubic hair and breast/penis and scrotum development annually
from ages 9 through 15.
Pubertal timing and tempo were estimated for each child from logistic growth curves of Tanner stage progression over time.
Pubertal timing indicates the predicted age at which an individual will
achieve Tanner Stage 3.
Pubertal tempo indicates the speed with which an individual progresses
from Stage 1 to Stage 5.
Data Analysis
Hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses were performed in SPSS.
Separate analyses were conducted for each parenting factor.
Child and mother reports of age 15 internalizing problems served as dependent variables.
Step 1: Internalizing symptoms at Grade 5, SES, Ethnicity, Gender, Pubertal Timing, Pubertal Rate, Parenting
Step 2: Time*Parenting Factor, Rate*Parenting Factor
Significant interactions were followed up with simple slope analyses.
Discussion
In summary, positive parent-child relationship factors appear to be more
protective against internalizing distress for late maturers.
One possible explanation for this finding may be the shift from parent to
peer orientation which occurs in adolescence, which may make peers more influential and parents less so.
Indeed, early maturers appear more influenced by peers than their slower maturing counterparts (Ferguson et al., 2007; Felson & Haynie, 2002).
Thus, protective effects of positive parent-child relationships may be more prominent in adolescents with later pubertal timing.
It is unclear why observations of the parent-child relationship did not relate
to youths’ own reports of internalizing problems. However, the disconnect
between maternal and child reports of internalizing symptoms is consistent with other research (Achenbach et al., 1987).
Perhaps adolescents’ feelings regarding internalizing symptoms in middle adolescence may be more dependent on peer relationships than past parent-
child relationship quality.
A notable strength of this study is the use of objective assessment
of parent-child relationship factors, rather than parent- or child-report
measures. However, it is possible that a child’s perception of interactions with parents is more critical than the objective reality of those interactions in the development of internalizing symptoms.
Finally, this study provided a limited snapshot of parent-child interactions,
assessing them only once in preadolescence. The parent-child relationship changes throughout puberty and adolescence (Laursen, Coy, & Collins, 1998), which may have attenuated the effects of age 11 parent-child factors. Future research may benefit from incorporating multiple assessments of parent-child interactions through adolescence.
Results
Participants
Descriptive Statistics:
Pubertal timing: M=12.43, SD=.93
Pubertal tempo: M=1.06, SD=.19
Respect for autonomy: M=4.98, SD=.94
Supportive presence: M=5.11, SD=.94
Cognitive development: M=4.7, SD=1.21
Quality of assistance: M=4.28, SD=1.13
Maternal hostility: M=1.59, SD=.87
Affection to Mother: M=5.16, SD=1.05
Affective Mutuality: M=5.06, SD=.90
Mother-reported Internalizing: M=5.18, SD=5.29
Child-reported Internalizing: M=9.78, SD=7.58
Maternal hostility was negatively associated with the other parenting
factors (-.65<r<-.25, p<.01).
All other parenting factors were positively related to one another
(.21<r<.78, p<.01).
Early pubertal timing was associated with slower pubertal tempo (r=.15,
p<.05).
Mother- and child-reported internalizing problems were not related (r=.01,
ns).
NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development.
951 children followed from birth to age 15
50% female
80% Caucasian
13% African American
7% Other
Measures
Parent-Child Relationship Factors:
(Egeland & Hiester, 1993)
All children performed a discussion task and planning activity with their
mothers at age 11 (Grade 5).
Videotapes of these interactions were coded by trained observers to yield
objective assessments of 8 factors related to the parent-child relationship.
Mother’s respect for child autonomy
Mother’s supportive presence
Mother’s stimulation of cognitive development
Mother’s quality of assistance
Mother’s hostility towards the child
Child’s affection towards the mother
Affective mutuality/felt security
The coding scale ranged from 1 (“very low”) to 7 (“very high” for each
factor.
Internalizing symptoms:
At child age 15, mothers completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach, 1991) and adolescents completed the Youth Self-Report (YSR; Achenbach,2001 ) version
The total internalizing subscales were used.
At age 11 (Grade 5), mothers also completed the CBCL yielding a total internalizing scale.
Conclusions
Objective positive qualities of the parent-child relationship at age 11 predict
fewer mother-reported internalizing problems for late maturing
adolescents.
Future research should further address the role of puberty in both parental and peer influences on adolescent adjustment.
β=.002
β=.14
β=-.68 β
Contact:
Meredith A. Henry
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Phone: (205)