The mediating effect of emotion inhibition and emotion regulation between adolescents’ perceived parental psychological control and depression

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between parental psychological control (PPC) as perceived by adolescents, emotion inhibition, emotion regulation, and depression in adolescents using a structural equation model. The participants were 316 middle school students in metropolitan areas of South Korea who completed the Domain-Specific Assessment of Psychological Control (DAPC), Children’s Sadness Management Scale (CSMS) and Children’s Anger Management Scale (CAMS), and the Center for Epidemiological Studies–Depression Scale (CES-D) survey. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, structural model verification, and bootstrap analysis. The results of this study indicated that PPC had a direct effect on depression. In addition, PPC had a significant effect on the emotion inhibition of dysfunctional emotion regulation, and emotion inhibition significantly affected depression. Therefore, emotion inhibition had a mediating effect between PPC and depression. Finally, this study’s implications and limitations are presented.