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Chinese Adolescents’ Relationships with Mothers, Fathers, and Siblings: Associations With Youth's Internalising and Externalising Problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2019

Yi Feng Open the ORCID record for Yi Feng [Opens in a new window] ,
Shawn D. Whiteman ,
Siyu Xu ,
Ling Li ,
Shenghua Jin  and
Doran C. French
Yi Feng
Affiliation:
Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
Shawn D. Whiteman*
Affiliation:
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, USA
Siyu Xu
Affiliation:
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
Ling Li
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China
Shenghua Jin
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Doran C. French
Affiliation:
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Shawn D. Whiteman, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Utah State University, 2705 Old Main Hill, UT 84322, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The associations between Chinese adolescents’ family (maternal, paternal, and sibling) relationship qualities and their adjustment were examined among 540 Chinese families over a one-year period. Path analysis revealed that father-offspring positivity was associated with lower levels of internalising problems, whereas mother-offspring conflict predicted youths’ depressive symptoms and loneliness. Controlling for parent-offspring relationships, sibling intimacy inversely predicted youths’ internalising and externalising problems, whereas sibling conflict predicted youths’ loneliness. Multigroup comparisons revealed that youth gender moderated the associations between maternal conflict and youths’ depressive symptoms, as well as sibling intimacy and youths’ loneliness. Overall, results highlight the importance of family systems for Chinese youths’ mental health and the need to study sibling relationships in future studies of Chinese families.

Keywords

adolescenceinternalising/externalisingfather-child relationsmother-child relationssiblings
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Relationships Research , Volume 10 , 2019 , e15
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2019 

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