{"title":"Parent-child attachment and adolescent problematic behavior: the mediating effect of legal emotions.","authors":"He Jianhua, Xu Su, Xu Shuhui","doi":"10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1546895","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>In criminology, the close relationship between legal emotions and adolescent deviant behavior is well-documented. In psychology, parental attachment is strongly associated with children's problematic behavior; however, the role of legal emotions in this relationship remains underexamined.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This study investigates the role of legal emotions in the relationship between adolescent parent-child attachment and problematic behavior. Adolescents completed self-report questionnaires.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Results revealed that both paternal and maternal attachment significantly negatively predicted adolescent problematic behavior, with paternal attachment explaining a larger proportion of the variance. Even after controlling for factors such as gender and grade level, parental attachment significantly negatively predicted adolescent problematic behavior. Legal emotions partially mediated the relationship between parental attachment and problematic behavior.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>These findings suggest that fostering positive parent-child relationships and enhancing adolescents' positive legal emotions may be effective strategies for reducing problematic behaviors among youth.</p>","PeriodicalId":12525,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Psychology","volume":"16 ","pages":"1546895"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11903415/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Frontiers in Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1546895","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Introduction: In criminology, the close relationship between legal emotions and adolescent deviant behavior is well-documented. In psychology, parental attachment is strongly associated with children's problematic behavior; however, the role of legal emotions in this relationship remains underexamined.
Methods: This study investigates the role of legal emotions in the relationship between adolescent parent-child attachment and problematic behavior. Adolescents completed self-report questionnaires.
Results: Results revealed that both paternal and maternal attachment significantly negatively predicted adolescent problematic behavior, with paternal attachment explaining a larger proportion of the variance. Even after controlling for factors such as gender and grade level, parental attachment significantly negatively predicted adolescent problematic behavior. Legal emotions partially mediated the relationship between parental attachment and problematic behavior.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that fostering positive parent-child relationships and enhancing adolescents' positive legal emotions may be effective strategies for reducing problematic behaviors among youth.
期刊介绍:
Frontiers in Psychology is the largest journal in its field, publishing rigorously peer-reviewed research across the psychological sciences, from clinical research to cognitive science, from perception to consciousness, from imaging studies to human factors, and from animal cognition to social psychology. Field Chief Editor Axel Cleeremans at the Free University of Brussels is supported by an outstanding Editorial Board of international researchers. This multidisciplinary open-access journal is at the forefront of disseminating and communicating scientific knowledge and impactful discoveries to researchers, academics, clinicians and the public worldwide. The journal publishes the best research across the entire field of psychology. Today, psychological science is becoming increasingly important at all levels of society, from the treatment of clinical disorders to our basic understanding of how the mind works. It is highly interdisciplinary, borrowing questions from philosophy, methods from neuroscience and insights from clinical practice - all in the goal of furthering our grasp of human nature and society, as well as our ability to develop new intervention methods.