Co-Development of Parenting, Self-Confidence, and Internalizing Problems From Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood

Despite extensive research linking parenting with adolescent adjustment, relatively little longitudinal research has examined how developmental changes in adolescents' perceptions of parenting, self-confidence, and internalizing problems are linked across the transition from adolescence to emerging adulthood.

Five-wave longitudinal data were drawn from the Korean Youth Panel Survey (N = 3188; mean age at Time 1 = 14.16 years, SD = 0.37), following participants from Grade 9 through Grade 12 and 1 year after high school graduation. Latent growth modeling and parallel process latent growth modeling were used to examine developmental trajectories and coordinated changes among perceived parenting quality, self-confidence, and internalizing problems. Gender differences were examined using multi-group analyses after establishing measurement invariance.

Perceived parenting quality and self-confidence increased over time, whereas internalizing problems decreased. Parallel process analyses indicated that developmental changes in perceived parenting quality, self-confidence, and internalizing problems were systematically associated across time. Multi-group analyses suggested that these developmental associations were largely similar for males and females.

These findings highlight the co-development of perceived parenting quality, self-confidence, and internalizing problems and underscore the importance of understanding adolescent adjustment as a developmental process that unfolds across interconnected relational, self-related, and emotional domains.