@article{ref1,
title="Mediating effects of parent-child relationship on the association between childhood maltreatment and depressive symptoms among adolescents",
journal="Child abuse and neglect",
year="2021",
author="Song, Lingling and Fang, Peifei and Jiang, Zhicheng and Li, Shuqin and Song, Xianbing and Wan, Yuhui",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Depressive symptoms are the most common mental disorder among adolescents, and its prevalence has been increasing in recent years. Although childhood maltreatment is a contributing factor to depressive symptoms among adolescents, the underlying mechanism of how this factor causes depressive symptoms is unclear. <br><br>OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the mediating effects of parent-child relationship on the association between childhood maltreatment and depressive symptoms among adolescents and to identify how sex and only child status affect this association. <br><br>METHODS: A total of 14,500 middle school students were randomly selected from four cities (Shenzhen, Zhengzhou, Nanchang, and Guiyang) in China. A survey questionnaire was administered to collect information on childhood maltreatment, parent-child relationship, and depressive symptoms. Pearson's correlation analysis was used in analyzing the relationship, Bootstrap method was used to test the mediating effects. A moderated mediation analysis has been used to determine the moderated mediation effect. <br><br>RESULTS: Childhood maltreatment significantly negatively correlated with parent-child relationship and positively correlated with depressive symptoms (P < 0.001). The indirect effect of parent-child relationship accounted for 20.60% of the total effect between childhood maltreatment and depressive symptoms in all respondents and differed by sex (boys, 17.00%; girls, 25.23%) and only child status (only child, 15.61%; child with siblings, 23.49%). Besides, the indirect effect of the mediation model was moderated by sex and only child status. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Childhood maltreatment increased the risk of depressive symptoms, and this relationship was partially mediated by parent-child relationship, sex and only child status have moderated the indirect relationship. These findings showed efforts aimed at enhancing the parent-child relationship may prevent or reduce the prevalence of depressive symptoms among adolescents, especially in girls and children with siblings.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0145-2134",
doi="10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105408",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105408"
}