Abstract:

Because of their high incidence as well as high risk, adolescent psychological problems have been a constant pressing topic of governmental, psychological, sociological, and medical interest for research. Adolescent depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation not only have serious impacts on an individual social functioning, the burden of disease and economic pressures caused by self-harming incidents also make it vital to explore the factors affecting these behaviors and their developmental mechanisms. Ecosystem theory emphasizes the role and significance of the environment in the process of individual development, believing that individual development is the result of one’s interactions with the surrounding environment. As the innermost structure in the ecosystem, family is the environment that is most relevant for individuals, having the greatest influence. In this study, two important components of the parent-child subsystem parent-child relationship (child) and educational involvement (parent) were introduced to explore their combined effects on adolescent depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation from a binary perspective. The roles of defeat and sense of meaning in life were also investigated from an integrated motivational-volitional model perspective.

The current study built a moderated mediation model exploring the combined effects of the parent-child relationship on adolescent depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation. A total of 930 middle school students (501 boys, 429 girls; average age = 15.24 ± 1.66 years) and their parents participated in this investigation. After given their informed consent, both parents and students completed the Short Form of Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, the Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory, the Four-item Depressive Symptom Index − Suicidality Subscale, the Parent-Child Intimacy Questionnaire, Parental Involvement in Primary School Children Education, the Defeat Scale, and the Chinese Meaning in Life Questionnaire. SPSS 26.0, AMOS 23.0, and Mplus 7.0 were used to analyze the data.

The results indicated that: (1) Compared to individuals with a low parent-child relationship and low educational involvement, adolescents with a high parent-child relationship and high educational involvement had lower levels of defeat (S = −4.37, p< 0.001, 95% CI= [−5.57, −3.32]). Compared to adolescents with a low parent-child relationship and high educational involvement, individuals with a high parent-child relationship and low educational involvement showed lower levels of defeat (S = −3.40, p< 0.001, 95% CI = [−4.53, −2.21]);

(2) Defeat partially mediated the relationship between the parent-child relationship and educational involvement and adolescent depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation (Direct effects_depression = 0.22, 95% CI = [0.16, 0.27], indirect effects_depression = 0.19, 95% CI = [0.14, 0.24]; Direct effects_self-injury = 0.14, 95% CI = [0.07, 0.20], indirect effects_self-injury = 0.10, 95% CI = [0.06, 0.14]; Direct effects_{suicidal ideation} = 0.21, 95% CI = [0.15, 0.28], indirect effects_{suicidal ideation} = 0.12, 95% CI = [0.08, 0.17]); (3) The second half of the mediation model was moderated by meaning in life, that is, with the increase of meaning in life, the effect of defeat on depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation gradually decreased.

Based on ecosystem theory and integrated motivational-volitional model, and using innovative polynomial regression and response surface analysis, the current study investigated the influence of the parent-child relationship and parents' educational involvement on adolescent depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation, as well as the mediating and moderating effects of defeat and meaning in life. The results providing additional evidence for the relevant developmental theories of depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation. This study also offers more insight into potential psychological crisis behavioral interventions.

Key words: adolescent mental health, parent-child relationship, defeat, meaning in life, response surface analysis