Balancing boundaries: Observed parental autonomy support and psychological control in the context of parent-adolescent interactions and adolescent depression

Abstract

Autonomy support (AS) and psychological control (PC) are important parenting behaviors in adolescence, with low AS and high PC relating to adolescent depression. Studies on observed levels of AS and PC in a clinical sample are lacking. The current study aimed to (1) develop a reliable coding system for parental AS and PC in parent-adolescent interactions and gain insights into its ecological validity in a healthy control (HC) sample, and (2) disentangle observed and adolescent-perceived parenting behaviors in relation to adolescent depression. HC adolescents (N = 80, M_age = 15.90, 63.7% girls, 91.3% White) and their parents (N = 148, M_age = 49.00, 53.4% female, 97.3% White) and adolescents with depression (current MDD/dysthymia; N = 35, M_age = 15.60, 77.1% girls, 65.7% White) and their parents (N = 62, M_age = 50.13, 56.5% female, 79.0% White) participated in three videotaped dyadic interaction tasks (problem solving, event planning, and reminiscence). Adolescents reported on their parents' behavior and their own positive and negative affect after each task, while observed AS and PC were coded from the videos. Multilevel analyses showed that observed AS and PC, coded with our reliable system, related to adolescent-perceived parenting (in daily life), confirming ecological validity. Adolescents with depression (vs. HC) had more negative perceptions of parenting, whereas observed AS and PC did not differ, indicating a negativity bias of adolescents with depression. Lastly, observed PC related to a lower affective state in adolescents with depression, but not HC. Parents could be psycho-educated on the impact of this behavior in a clinical setting.