Parental Self-Control Facilitates Adolescent Psychological Adjustment Sequentially Through Parents’ Perceived Stress/Mindful Parenting and Adolescent Self-Control

Abstract

Adolescence is a unique developmental period marked with significant changes and challenges. As such, maintaining optimal psychological adjustment is crucial for young people, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when their adjustment became more challenging. Self-control is a vital ability assisting individuals to navigate difficulties and stay well-adjusted during turbulent times. While the associations between adolescent self-control and adjustment have been well-documented, parental self-control has been considered to play a more fundamental role in adolescent adjustment. However, this consideration has received scant research. Drawing on the intergenerational transmission model of self-regulation, we examined an understudied yet plausible idea that parental self-control facilitates adolescent adjustment through parents’ lower levels of perceived stress/better mindful parenting and adolescents’ improved self-control. A two-wave survey study, spanning 1 year apart, was conducted among 426 Chinese adolescents (Mage = 11.6 years, 53.5% boys) and their parents. Parents rated their self-control, perceived stress, and mindful parenting at T1, while adolescents rated their self-control and adjustment (i.e., psychological difficulties and life satisfaction) at T1 and T2. The results of chain mediation model showed that after controlling for demographic covariates and baseline levels of adolescent self-control and adjustment, T1 paternal self-control facilitated T2 adolescent adjustment through fathers’ lower levels of perceived stress and adolescents’ improved self-control. By contrast, T1 maternal self-control facilitated T2 adolescent adjustment through mothers’ better mindful parenting and adolescents’ improved self-control. These findings advance our understanding of how self-control is transmitted from parents to offspring and clarify the processes of how parental self-control facilitates adolescent adjustment.