Perceived Parental Involvement Decreases the Risk of Adolescent Depression

To tailor culturally sensitive interventional strategies for safeguarding adolescents' mental health, this study investigated the role of perceived parental involvement in predicting depressive symptoms among Chinese adolescents, considering family socioeconomic status (SES).

A cluster convenience sampling method recruited 21,818 participants from 48 middle schools across 29 provinces in China. The perceived parental involvement (PPI) Scale and the Chinese version of the center for epidemiologic studies depression scale (CES-D) assessed parental involvement and depressive symptoms, respectively. Data analysis employed linear mixed-effect models (LMM) and latent profile analysis (LPA).

The results indicated that 35.26% of adolescents exhibited subclinical depressive symptoms. LMM analysis revealed that higher perceived parental involvement scores, particularly emotional involvement, significantly predicted lower CES-D scores (β = -0.45, p < 0.001). LPA identified three distinct family factors profiles, with the "High SES-High PPI" group showing the lowest depression scores.

The findings underscore the protective benefits of perceived parental involvement, especially emotional support, in mitigating depressive symptoms among adolescents. Specifically, adolescents from families with both high SES and high parental involvement exhibited the lowest levels of depressive symptoms, suggesting that interventions should focus on enhancing emotional support and addressing socioeconomic disparities to effectively reduce adolescent depression.