The capacity to be alone moderates psychopathological symptoms and social networks use in adolescents during the covid‐19 pandemic

Abstract

During the COVID‐19 pandemic, adolescents could not leave their house freely, meet up with friends, or attend school; previous literature showed that youths under enforced confinement or quarantine were five times more likely to suffer from psychopathological symptoms and use social networks sites (SNs) greatly. This study aimed to verify whether the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship could predict youths’ psychopathological symptoms and their SN use during the pandemic, and to evaluate the possible moderator role of their the capacity to be alone. Seven hundred and thirty‐nine (n = 739) adolescents were recruited from the general population during the COVID‐19 lockdown in Italy, and they were administered The Capacity to be Alone Scale, The BSMAS, the YSR, and the Perceived Filial Self‐efficacy Scale. Our results confirmed a direct effect of the perceived filial self‐efficacy on the psychopathological symptoms so that a poorer perceived quality of the relationship with the caregivers predicted higher psychopathological symptoms in youths. Moreover, greater social networks use was predictive of psychopathological symptoms in adolescents. Our results also showed a significant interaction effect between adolescents’ perceived filial efficacy and the capacity to be alone on SN use and on psychopathological symptoms. These results suggest that youths’ response to the confinement during the pandemic is influenced both by individual characteristics (the capacity to be alone) and by relational variables (the perceived filial self‐efficacy).