Psychological Development and Education ›› 2017, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (4): 468-476.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2017.04.11

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Marital Conflict, Parent-child Relationship and Adolescents' Depression in Chinese Only and Non-only Child Family

XIAO Xue1,2, LIU Lisha2, XU Liangyuan2, LI Yanfang2   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875;
    2. National Innovation Center for Assessment of Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875
  • Online:2017-07-15 Published:2017-07-15

Abstract: Based on the data from 452 adolescents and their parents, the present study investigated the mediating effects of parent-child relationship between marital conflict and adolescents' depression, and explored whether the effects were different on Chinese only and non-only child. Results showed that:(1)Compared with non-only child, the only child experienced higher level of mother-child closeness and father-child closeness, and lower level of mother-child conflict and father-child conflict, while the two groups had no difference in marital conflict. (2)Marital conflict positively predicted adolescents' depression, and mother-child relationship instead of father-child relationship partially mediated the pathway. (3)The mediation of mother-child conflict was significantly moderated by whether children were only or non-only child, the effect was found on the only child rather than non-only child. The mediation of mother-child closeness didn't differ between the only child and non-only child. These findings underlined the importance for mothers to resolve marital conflict in marital subsystem, rather than bringing them into parental subsystem, especially for those who have the only child.

Key words: marital conflict, parent-child relationship, depression, the only child, adolescent

CLC Number: 

  • B844

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