The Impact of Parental Behaviors on Adolescents’ Mental Health
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61173/dac0n374Keywords:
Parental behaviors, mental health, parental expectations, caregiver behaviors, parenting styles, ado-lescentsAbstract
Adolescent mental health problems have gradually become a frequent phenomenon, many of which include social pressure, academic pressure, and other dominant factors, including family pressure. However, Much of the existing research examines how social factors, like social media or social stress, affect the health of adolescents, while largely overlooking the role of parents in their family background. This report mainly discusses the influence of parents’ behavior on children’s mental health, mainly from the perspective of parents’ psychology and parenting practice. Parents’ own psychological pressure, which can easily lead to their pressure transfer, such as the pressure of parents’ caregivers can easily lead to the strengthening of parents’ control over their children and the increase of expectations. Parental conflict often increases depression and stress levels in adolescents. In addition, other studies have found some consistency between parental behavior and adolescent behavior, including Internet addiction, sexual cognitive impairment, and violent tendencies.
References
of self-worth. Excessive stress may also affect adoles- Psychiatria Danubina, 2019, 31(suppl 3): 331-337. cents’ academic performance and social skills, making it [2] Xiong, Y., Qin, X., Wang, Q. et al. Parental Involvement difficult for them to cope with the challenges of daily life. in Adolescents’ Learning and Academic Achievement: Cross- However, a moderate amount of stress can motivate teen- lagged Effect and Mediation of Academic Engagement. J Youth
agers to work hard and grow, and it is up to parents to Adolescence, 2021, 50: 1811–1823. balance expectations and pressure. Parental expectations [3] Shensa, A., Sidani, J. E., Dew, M. A., Escobar-Viera, C. G.,
have an important impact on adolescents’ mental health. & Primack, B. A. (2018). Social Media Use and Depression and Reasonable expectations can stimulate the potential of Anxiety Symptoms: A Cluster Analysis. American journal of
teenagers and help them set goals and work towards them. health behavior, 2018, 42(2): 116–128. High expectations may cause adolescents to feel stressed [4] Liu, X., Zhang, Y., Gao, W. et al. Developmental trajectories out and to develop feelings of frustration and dissatisfac- of depression, anxiety, and stress among college students: a tion. This can affect their self-confidence and self-effica- piecewise growth mixture model analysis. Humanit Soc Sci
cy. Parents should communicate effectively with young Commun, 2023, 10: 736. people to understand their interests and abilities and set [5] WHO. Adolescent health. Retrieved from https://www.who. realistic goals. Authoritative parenting (high demands, int/health-topics/adolescent-health/ on 20 October, 2024. high responsiveness) is generally considered to be the best [6] Adler R. Psychosocial Disorders in Young People: Time for a teenager’s mental health. This kind of parenting can Trends and their Causes Edited by Michael Rutter and David cultivate teenagers’ independence, self-confidence and J. Smith John Wiley, Chichester, 1995 (ISBN 0-471-95054-8).
social adaptability. Authoritarian parenting styles (high European Review. 1996, 4(3): 287-290. demands, low responsiveness) can lead to rebellious, [7] Baumrind, D. The influence of parenting style on aggressive behaviour and psychological problems in ado- adolescent competence and substance use. The Journal of Early
lescents. Casual parenting (low demands, low responsive- Adolescence, 1991, 11(1): 56–95. ness) may result in adolescents lacking self-control and [8] Booth, A., & Amato, P. R. Parental marital quality, parental Dean&Francis Xueyao Li divorce, and relations with parents. Journal of Marriage and the Health: An Empirical Study Based on CEPS Survey Data, 2024,
Family, 1994, 56(1): 21–34. 26(2): 93–103. [9] Harold, G. T., Shelton, K. H., Goeke-Morey, M. C., & [21] Lu, H., Nie, P. & Sousa-Poza, A. The Effect of Parental Cummings, E. M. Marital Conflict, Child Emotional Security Educational Expectations on Adolescent Subjective Well-Being about Family Relationships and Child Adjustment. Social and the Moderating Role of Perceived Academic Pressure:
Development, 2004, 13(3): 350–376. Longitudinal Evidence for China. Child Ind Res, 2021, 14: 117– [10] Davis-Kean, P. E. The Influence of Parent Education and 137. Family Income on Child Achievement: The Indirect Role of [22] Ma, Y., Siu, A., & Tse, W. S. The role of high parental Parental Expectations and the Home Environment. Journal of expectations in adolescents’ academic performance and
Family Psychology, 2005, 19(2): 294–304. depression in Hong Kong. Journal of Family Issues, 2018, 39(9): [11] Froiland, J. M., & Davison, M. L. Parental expectations 2505–2522. and school relationships as contributors to adolescents’ positive [23] Wang, C. Resurgence of Confucian education in outcomes. Social Psychology of Education: An International contemporary China: Parental involvement, moral anxiety, and
Journal, 2014, 17(1): 1–17. the pedagogy of memorisation. Journal of Moral Education, [12] Kaufmann, S., Ciarrochi, J., Yap, K. et al. Perceived 2022, 52(3): 325–342. Parenting Style and Adolescent Self-Compassion: A [24] Ho, D.Y.F. Filial Piety Scale and Traditional Chinese
Longitudinal, Within-Person Approach. Mindfulness, 2023, 14: Values. In: Krägeloh, C.U., Alyami, M., Medvedev, O.N. (eds) 2745–2756. International Handbook of Behavioral Health Assessment. [13] Chen, H., & Lan, W. Adolescents’ perceptions of their Springer, Cham. 2023. parents’ academic expectations: Comparison of American, [25] Oishi, S., & Sullivan, H. W. The Mediating Role of Parental Chinese-American, and Chinese high school students. Expectations in Culture and Well-Being. Journal of Personality,
Adolescence, 1998, 33(130): 385–390. 2005, 73(5): 1267–1294. [14] Kao, G., & Tienda, M. Educational aspirations of minority [26] Xin Y, Yu L. The Influence of Parents’ Educational
youth. American Journal of Education, 1998, 106(3): 349–384. Expectations on Children’s Development: The Chain Mediation [15] Zhang, L. Parent-Child Expectation Discrepancy and Role of Educational Anxiety and Parental Involvement.
Adolescent Mental Health: Evidence from “China Education Behavioral Sciences. 2024, 14(9): 779.
Panel Survey”. Child Indicators Research, 2024, 17: 705–730. [27] Rossman, B. B. R., & Rea, J. G. The relation of parenting [16] Appleton, J. J., Christenson, S. L., Kim, D., & Reschly, A. L. styles and inconsistencies adaptive functioning for children in Measuring cognitive and psychological engagement: Validation conflictual and violent families. Journal of Family Violence,
of the Student Engagement Instrument. Journal of School 2005, 20(5).
Psychology, 2006, 44(5): 427–445. [28] Abidin, R. R., & Brunner, J. F. Development of a Parenting [17] Carney Almroth, B. M., Åström, L., Roslund, S., Petersson, Alliance Inventory. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 1995, H., Johansson, M., & Persson, N. K. Quantifying shedding of 24(1), 31–40. synthetic fibers from textiles; a source of microplastics released [29] Osborne, L.A., & Reed, P. Stress and self-perceived into the environment. Environmental science and pollution parenting behaviors of parents of children with autistic spectrum
research international, 2018, 25(2): 1191–1199. conditions. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 2010, 4: [18] Smith, M. M., Sherry, S. B., Chen, S., Saklofske, D. H., 405-414. Flett, G. L., & Hewitt, P. L. Perfectionism and narcissism: A [30] Semke, C.A., Garbacz, S.A., Kwon, K., Sheridan, S.M., &
meta-analytic review. Journal of Research in Personality, 2016, Woods, K.E. Family involvement for children with disruptive 64: 90–101. behaviors: the role of parenting stress and motivational beliefs. [19] Kenny, N., McCoy, S., & Mihut, G. Special education Journal of school psychology, 2010, 48(4): 293-312 . reforms in Ireland: changing systems, changing schools. [31] Dishion, T. J., & McMahon, R. J. Parental monitoring and
International Journal of Inclusive Education, 2020, 1–20. the prevention of child and adolescent problem behavior: a [20] Xu, T., Zuo, F., & Zheng, K. Parental Educational conceptual and empirical formulation. Clinical child and family
Expectations, Academic Pressure, and Adolescent Mental psychology review, 1998, 1(1): 61–75.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 by the authors.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
