Parent-adolescent reminiscing and youth psychopathology: A cross-sectional and longitudinal investigation

Robust research links qualities of parent-child discussions about past emotion-laden events to socioemotional development and broader psychological outcomes during childhood. The role of parent-adolescent reminiscing in adolescent psychological adjustment, however, has received less attention, despite adolescence being a time of heightened vulnerability for the development of internalizing symptoms. In the current multimethod study, we investigated cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between the qualities of conversations between mothers and adolescents (ages 13-16) and adolescents' internalizing problems.

Participants were 67 mother-adolescent dyads (total N = 134, 58.8% of youth identified as female) located across regions of New Zealand/Aotearoa. Each dyad discussed a past shared conflict, coded for supportive and unsupportive reminiscing conversational qualities with an adapted dyadic coding scheme. Youth internalizing symptoms were assessed at two-time points, 12-month apart.

Dyadic structural equation modeling analyzed cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between conversational qualities and adolescents' internalizing problems. Findings indicated concurrent associations between unsupportive mother-adolescent reminiscing qualities and heightened youth anxiety symptoms: Specifically, mothers' avoidance and lower levels of emotion discussion and adolescents' emotional disengagement were linked to greater youth anxiety symptoms. Moreover, increases in youth anxiety symptoms 12 months later were weaker for youth who engaged in greater levels of the supportive reminiscing qualities of balanced emotion discussion and active problem-solving.

These novel findings highlight the transactional nature and complex dynamics of reminiscing during adolescence and their relationship with youth mental health, which has implications for theory and clinical practice.