Co-parenting Pathways from Grandparents’ Psychological Control to Parents’ Depressive Symptoms

Researchers have extensively investigated parents’ psychological control over children. However, there is a lack of research examining parent psychological control during adulthood and its underlying mechanisms, particularly in the context of intergenerational co-parenting. The present study aimed to fill this gap by exploring the potential mediating roles of multidimensional intergenerational co-parenting relationships and insomnia severity in the association between grandparents’ psychological control and parents’ depressive symptoms. Data were collected from intergenerational co-parenting families in urban Tianjin and Shanghai, China (N = 674). Serial mediation models were used to allow for two mediators simultaneously. Path analyses were performed to investigate the mediation models of the total score and each sub-construct of intergenerational co-parenting relationships, respectively. The results showed that in the context of intergenerational co-parenting, grandparent psychological control was positively associated with parents’ depressive symptoms. Intergenerational co-parenting relationships and parents’ insomnia severity alone mediated the association between grandparents’ psychological control and parents’ depressive symptoms, respectively. Moreover, among the multiple dimensions of intergenerational co-parenting relationships, only the dimension of exposure of child to conflict via insomnia severity mediated such an association. Family service practitioners or therapists working with intergenerational co-parenting families should pay attention to parents with high levels of grandparent psychological control and focus on enhancing parent-grandparent co-parenting relationships, particularly reducing parent-grandparent conflict exposure to children. Additionally, addressing parents’ sleep problems might be a key component of interventions aimed at improving the psychological well-being of parents experiencing psychological control from co-parenting grandparents.