The Effect Of Parental Conflict On Adolescent Depression:A Moderated Chain-mediated Model

Objective(s): By comparing adolescents with depressed patients and healthy adolescents at school,this study analyzed the inter-group differences between the two groups in parental conflict,emotional insecurity,negative automatic thinking,depression level and demographic variables,and explored the relationship between adolescent parental conflict and depression as well as the mediating role of emotional insecurity and negative automatic thinking.And to further study whether the group(depression group,control group)has a regulatory effect.This study has important implications for identifying risk factors affecting adolescent depression and predicting intervention methods for different groups.Methods: 256 adolescents with depressive disorder(depression group)and 364 healthy adolescents in school(control group)were tested by self-designed general data questionnaire,parental conflict children Perception Scale,flow center Depression Scale,Emotional security Scale and Negative Automatic Thinking Scale.Data were analyzed using SPSS24.0 software.Results:(1)There were significant differences in parental conflict perception,negative automatic thinking,emotional insecurity and depression between the depressed group and the control group.(2)There were significant differences in demographic variables,gender,family economic status and online time of adolescents in depressive group.(3)Parental conflict,emotional insecurity,negative automatic thinking and depression were positively correlated between the depressed group and the control group.(4)In the depressed group and the control group,emotional insecurity played a mediating role between parental conflict and adolescent depression.(5)In the depressed group,negative automatic thinking played a mediating role between parental conflict and adolescent depression;In the control group,negative automatic thinking had no significant mediating effect between parental conflict and adolescent depression.(6)In the depressed group,emotional insecurity and negative automatic thinking played a chain mediating role between parental conflict and depressive status;In the control group,emotional insecurity and negative automatic thinking were not significant chain mediators between parental conflict and depressive status.(7)Group(depression group,control group)had no significant moderating effect on the relationship between parental conflict and adolescent depression.(8)Group(depression group,control group)had significant moderating effect on the relationship between emotional insecurity,negative automatic thinking and adolescent depression.Conclusion(s):In the depressed group,parental conflict not only directly affects depression,but also indirectly through the effects of emotional insecurity and negative automatic thinking.In the control group,parental conflict can influence depression either directly or through emotional insecurity.Compared with the control group,as the level of emotional insecurity increased,the level of depression in the depressed group almost did not change;With the improvement of the level of negative automatic thinking,the rate of depression increased faster in the depressed group.Therefore,protecting adolescents’ emotional security and changing their negative automatic thinking can effectively reduce the possibility of depression in adolescents.In practice,if adolescents are found to have depressive tendencies,more attention should be paid to their emotional states.If it is found that teenagers have a high level of depression,we can intervene from the perspective of cognition,improve the self-cognitive bias,and enrich coping strategies.