When love harms: Longitudinal effects of harsh parenting on adolescents' depressive symptoms and reactive-proactive aggression.

Résumé

BACKGROUND: Harsh parenting is linked to adolescent depressive symptoms and reactive-proactive aggression. The emotional mechanisms behind these links remain unclear, especially in Chinese culture.OBJECTIVE: This 3-year longitudinal study examined whether sadness and anger rumination mediate the effects of harsh parenting on depressive symptoms and reactive-proactive aggression among Chinese adolescents, and whether these pathways differ by gender.METHOD: A total of 878 adolescents (Mage = 12.73 ± 0.43; 56.2% male) were assessed across three waves. Guided by the Functionalist Theory of Emotion and the Process Model of Emotion Regulation, we tested two parallel mediation models: one distinct predictive model for each outcome to examine domain-specific pathways, and one joint predictive model for both outcomes to assess potential cross-domain associations.RESULTS: In the distinct predictive model, sadness rumination mediated the relationship between harsh parenting and depressive symptoms, whereas anger rumination mediated the relationship between harsh parenting and reactive-proactive aggression. In the joint predictive model, sadness rumination emerged as a shared mediator of both outcomes. Gender differences revealed stronger depressive symptom-related pathways in males and greater reactive-proactive aggression in females.