Parent-Child Communication and Early Adolescents' Coping Strategies: Mediating Role of Sibling Relationship

To examine whether parent-child communication, measured separately for mothers and fathers, directly influences the coping strategies (active, distraction, and problem-focused) used by early adolescents, and whether this association was mediated by sibling support. Parent-child relationship has been found to influence the coping strategies that children use. Additionally, according to Family Systems theory, sibling relationships are an integral part of children's positive development. Therefore, it is possible that sibling support mediates the association between parent-child communication and children's coping strategies. Data for this project were taken from a large-scale longitudinal study and were collected from N = 1561 adolescents (M_age = 12.75). Results suggested that parent-adolescent communication had a significant direct impact on all three coping strategies. Furthermore, sibling support partially mediated the relationship between parent-adolescent communication and all three coping strategies. Along with parents, siblings are also a source of socialization for adolescents and have implications for their development.