Unraveling Daily Linkages between Parenting Behaviors and Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms in Chinese Families: The Mediating Role of Adolescent Self-Compassion

Abstract

Parenting behaviors fluctuate within families in daily life, contributing to variations in adolescent psychological adjustment outcomes. While adolescent self-compassion may help explain this link, emerging studies have primarily focused on stable differences between families and examined self-compassion as a mediator at the between-family level. How these mediating processes operate within families, however, remains unknown. To address this gap, this 25-day daily diary study examined within-family level mediation effects of self-compassion on the links between supportive and negative controlling parenting behaviors and adolescent internalizing symptoms. The sample included adolescents (Mage = 10.85, SD = 0.54; 48.59% boys) and their parents from 155 Chinese families. Positive (self-warmth) and negative (self-coldness) facets of self-compassion were examined as separate constructs. Concurrent mediation results (same-day) generally revealed that adolescents endorsed greater self-warmth on days when they perceived more supportive parenting behaviors, which in turn predicted lower internalizing symptoms. Daily negative controlling parenting behaviors were associated to heightened internalizing symptoms through higher self-coldness on a given day. Lagged indirect effects (next-day) yielded different findings: daily adolescent-perceived supportive parenting behaviors prospectively predicted higher internalizing symptoms two days later via higher next-day self-coldness. Findings highlight the dynamic parenting processes and demonstrate that daily changes in parenting behaviors contribute to adolescent internalizing symptoms via daily shifts in self-compassion.