The relationship between parenting attitudes, negative cognition, and the depressive symptoms according to gender in Korean adolescents

Abstract

Background: Parenting style is one potential contributor to the development of adolescents' cognitions, self-esteem and emotional problems. This study examined the relationship between maternal parenting attitudes and adolescents' negative cognitions, and depressive symptoms according to gender.

Methods: A total of 401 middle and high school students were recruited (i.e. 221 males and 180 females; mean age, 13.92 ± 1.31 years). The Maternal Behavior Research Instrument assessed maternal parenting attitudes. Analyses examined the relationship between parenting attitudes and affective symptoms, with self-esteem and negative automatic thoughts as mediators of these relations.

Results: Maternal rejecting attitudes were positively associated with depressive symptoms via increasing negative autonomic thoughts and decreasing self-esteem among female adolescents. Among male adolescents, maternal rejecting attitudes were associated with low self-esteem, but they were not associated with depressive symptoms.

Conclusions: Maternal parenting has a larger impact on the emotional adjustment of females compared to males. Interventions to increase self-esteem and correct negative cognitions may be helpful for depressed female adolescents, specifically for those whose mothers are rejecting.

Keywords: Adolescents; Depression; Negative cognition; Parenting.

Fig. 1

Structural equation modeling (SEM) results in the total sample and standardized path coefficients. The relationship between maternal rejecting attitudes and depressive symptoms was fully mediated by negative automatic thoughts (model 1) or self-esteem (model 2). Only significant paths are presented (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.001)

Fig. 2

Multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) results and standardized path coefficients. The bold line indicates a pathway that is significantly different between female and male adolescents. Only significant paths are presented (* p < 0.01, ** p < 0.001)