Effects of parental stress-buffering on multiple measures of positive valence systems functioning

Adolescence involves social reorientation toward peers, increasing exposure to interpersonal stressors and vulnerability to psychopathology. The current study investigated the potential buffering effects of high-quality parent-child relationships (PCRs) on the associations between peer stress exposure and multiple measures of positive valence systems (PVS) functioning. The study included 165 adolescents, ages 9-16 (81 girls, M _age = 11.93, 78.18% White). Interviews were conducted to gather data on PCR quality and peer stress exposure. Adolescents self-reported their reward sensitivity, and behavioral reward sensitivity was derived from a reward learning paradigm. The reward positivity (RewP) was recorded during three tasks using monetary, social, and food reward stimuli. Contrary to our predictions, adolescents who had higher-quality PCR showed a blunted monetary RewP (β = 0.17, p = .020) and reduced behavioral reward sensitivity (β = 0.15, p = .040), when also reporting high levels of peer stress exposure. No significant interaction was found with other measures as the outcomes. The results suggest that high-quality PCR may not uniformly buffer against the effects of peer stress exposure and highlight differential effects for different PVS measures. Future research across multiple units of analysis is needed to elucidate the complex pathway to PVS-related psychopathology during this critical developmental stage.