Fathers, Conflicts, and Consolation: Longitudinal Associations Between Parent-Child Relationships and Adolescent...

Symptoms of Internet gaming disorder are an important developmental concern during adolescence, but their longitudinal associations with parent-adolescent relationships remain unclear. Guided by a transactional developmental perspective, this two-year longitudinal study examined bidirectional associations between mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relationship quality and adolescent Internet gaming disorder symptoms. Participants were 3364 Chinese adolescents (51.0% girls; M_age = 14.15 years, SD = 1.56; age range = 11-17 years) and their parents. Random-intercept cross-lagged panel models showed that, at the between-person level, higher levels of parent-reported closeness in parent-adolescent relationships was associated with lower levels of adolescent Internet gaming disorder symptoms, whereas greater conflict was associated with higher symptom levels. At the within-person level, reciprocal associations emerged only between father-adolescent conflict and adolescent Internet gaming disorder symptoms, and both associations being positive. However, these associations were small in magnitude and attenuated after adjusting for covariates. No significant gender differences emerged in these longitudinal associations. Overall, the findings suggest that associations between parent-adolescent relationships and adolescent symptoms of Internet gaming disorder primarily reflect stable between-person differences, whereas short-term reciprocal processes are limited and emerge mainly in the context of father-adolescent conflict. This study highlights the importance of distinguishing between-person and within-person processes and indicates that parent-adolescent relationship quality represents an important developmental context associated with adolescent Internet gaming disorder symptoms.