Relation of congruence and incongruence in father– and mother–child relationships to adolescent depressive symptoms: a polynomial regression and response surface analysis

Purpose

Our study aims to investigate the associations of adolescent depressive symptoms with (in)congruence in father– and mother–child relationships and examine the moderating role of self-esteem in these associations.

Methods

Our study recruited 3124 adolescents from a secondary school in Sichuan Province, China. Polynomial regression and response surface analysis were used to examine the associations between adolescent depressive symptoms and (in)congruence in father– and mother–child relationships, and the hierarchical regression analysis were used to assess the moderating effect of self-esteem.

Results

Polynomial regression and response surface analyses revealed that, under conditions where father– and mother–child relationships were congruent, adolescents—regardless of sex—reported lower levels of depressive symptoms when both relationships were of high quality, and higher levels when both were of low quality. In cases of incongruent father– and mother–child relationships, greater discrepancies between the two were associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms. Additionally, among girls, those in the low mother–child–high father–child relationship condition reported higher levels of depressive symptoms than those in the high mother–child–low father–child condition. Finally, self-esteem did not significantly moderate the association between patterns of parent–child relationships and adolescent depressive symptoms.

Conclusions

The findings highlight that low-quality and inconsistent father– and mother–child relationships are closely associated with adolescent depressive symptoms, suggesting that interventions targeting adolescent depressive symptoms should assess not only the quality of each parent–child relationship but also the consistency between them.