Parent-Child Relationships and Mental Health in the Transition to Adulthood by Race and Ethnicity.

Abstract

There is growing literature about the positive and moderating roles that parent-child relationships can have for adolescent and adult mental health outcomes. Research has shown, for example, that positive and communicative parent-adolescent relationships significantly predict lower adolescent depressive symptoms and can moderate negative effects of parental conflict in families (Ackard et al., 2006; Morgan et al., 2012; Osborne & Fincham, 1996). Many of these studies use population-level data sets and control for families’ racial and ethnic identity. In doing so, much of this literature implicitly assumes the framework of the standard North American family, allowing the largest population to