(PS12-41) Parenting Factors as Predictors of Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms Across Puberty

Background: Adolescence is a developmental period between childhood and adulthood. The prevalence of internalizing disorders increases during this transition, especially among girls. Though literature demonstrates that parent psychopathology and parenting behaviors (e.g., monitoring and control) predict internalizing symptoms through adolescence, less is known about these relationships during puberty specifically, the earliest stage of adolescence, when physical and sexual maturation begins. In the present study, we examined if parents’ internalizing symptoms and parenting behaviors predicted changes in adolescents’ internalizing symptoms from pre- to late puberty. Furthermore, we investigated the role of adolescents’ biological sex in the relationship between parental factors and adolescents’ internalizing symptoms.



Methods: Utilizing data from the 5.0 release of the NIH Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, we created a subset of adolescents (N = 1988; Girls = 62.4%; White = 69%; Multiracial = 11.9%; Black = 10.8%; Asian = 2.3%; American Indian/Native American = 0.8%; Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander = 0.2%; Other = 3.9%; Unknown = 1.2%; Hispanic/Latinx = 18%) who started puberty by baseline (M_age = 9.59) and reached late puberty at the four-year follow-up (M_age = 13.8). Pubertal status was assessed by both parent and child reports of the Pubertal Developmental Scale and Menstrual Cycle Survey (PDMS). Adolescent and parent internalizing symptoms were measured via the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Adult Self-Report (ASR). Lastly, parenting behaviors were measured from the Parental Monitoring Survey, the Acceptance Subscale from Children’s Report of Parental Behavior Inventory (CRPBI) - Short, and the Family Environment Scale - Family Conflict Subscale (FES-CS).



Results: Higher parent internalizing symptoms at pre-puberty were associated with higher adolescents’ internalizing symptoms at late puberty (b = .10, F(25,1962) = 31.6, p_FDR < .001). Increased parental monitoring at pre-puberty was significantly associated with decreased adolescents’ internalizing symptoms at late puberty (b = -.69, F(25,1962) = 6.53, p_FDR < .05). Significant interactions were found between adolescents’ biological sex and parents’ internalizing symptoms (b = 0.08, F(26,1961) = 8.23, p_FDR < .05) and family conflict (b = 0.30, F(26,1961) = 5.14, p_FDR < .05) on adolescents’ internalizing symptoms. Girls reported greater increases in symptoms compared to boys when parents’ internalizing symptoms and family conflict increased.



Conclusions: Consistent with prior work focused on adolescents, we found that parents’ internalizing symptoms may be an important predictor of internalizing symptoms during puberty. Moreover, parental monitoring was associated with less internalizing symptoms during the pubertal period. Our findings also expand the existing literature that girls may be more susceptible to the development of internalizing symptoms and certain parenting behaviors compared to boys. Future studies should further test the mechanisms through which specific parenting symptoms and behaviors serve as magnifiers or buffers of adolescents’ internalizing symptoms during the pubertal period.