The longitudinal associations between perceived maternal parenting style, mother–adolescent relationship quality and friendship quality: Does adolescents' gender matter?
Description
Introduction Adolescents begin to expand their social networks beyond the family and turn increasingly to their peers for support. parenting practices present in the parent–child dyad are likely to extend to peer dyads. However, when considering the process involved in the transmission from parenting practices to friendships, the mediating role of parent–child relationships remains unclear. The current study was conducted to explore the mediating effect of mother–adolescent relationship quality between perceived maternal parenting practices (i.e., autonomy support and psychological control) and friendship quality in a three-wave longitudinal design and to examine whether adolescents’ gender moderates these associations. Methods A sample of 344 Chinese adolescents (12.01 to 15 years old at Wave 1, M = 13.08, SD = .39; 153 boys and 191 girls) filled out questionnaires on perceived maternal parenting practices, mother–adolescent relationship quality, and friendship quality, separately at three waves. Results Perceived maternal autonomy support promoted positive friendship quality and lessened negative friendship quality through mother–adolescent relationship quality. Perceived maternal psychological control undermined positive friendship quality through positive mother–adolescent relationship quality. In addition, multigroup path analysis indicated that these associations partly differed across adolescent gender and that girls were more affected by perceived maternal parenting practices. Conclusions These findings demonstrated the mediating effect of mother–adolescent relationship quality between perceived maternal parenting practices and adolescent friendship quality and highlighted the importance of considering adolescents’ gender in understanding adolescent relationship quality.