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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Rehabilitation
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1458378
This article is part of the Research Topic Navigating the Storm: Addressing Mental and Behavioral Health Challenges in Disadvantaged Children, Adolescents and Young Adults (CAYA) View all articles

How is parental psychological control associated with adolescent mental health in economically disadvantaged areas? The serial mediating role of psychological reactance and problematic smartphone use

Provisionally accepted
Qiangqiang Li Qiangqiang Li 1Shuwen Wei Shuwen Wei 2Zixiao Liu Zixiao Liu 2*
  • 1 School of Educational Science, Jiangsu Second Normal University, Nanjing, Liaoning Province, China
  • 2 Department of Social Work, School of Sociology and Political Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Adolescent mental health has been an issue of global concern, and the mental health of adolescents in economically disadvantaged areas may require additional research. The research delves into factors associated with economically disadvantaged areas' adolescent mental health, employing family systems theory, self-determination theory, and psychological reactance theory. Specifically, the present study which was done in Jingzhou country, an economically disadvantaged area of Hunan Province, China, aimed to examine the link between parental psychological control and adolescent mental health, as well as the mediating roles of psychological reactance and problematic smartphone use in this relationship. A sample of 1300 Chinese middle school students (620 girls, mean age = 14.22 ± 1.29) completed self-reported measures of parental psychological control, psychological reactance, problematic smartphone use, and adolescent mental health. Results showed that parental psychological control was negatively associated with adolescent mental health. Psychological reactance and problematic smartphone use mediated the association between parental psychological control and adolescent mental health, separately and serially. The findings of the present study enrich the literature on parenting styles and adolescent mental health in economically disadvantaged areas, and this provides an intervention perspective to reduce the negative impact of poor parenting on adolescent mental health in economically disadvantaged areas.

    Keywords: Parental psychological control, psychological reactance, Problematic smartphone use, Mental Health, economically disadvantaged areas

    Received: 02 Jul 2024; Accepted: 02 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Li, Wei and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Zixiao Liu, Department of Social Work, School of Sociology and Political Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China

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