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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Developmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1546895
Parent-Child Attachment and Adolescent Problematic Behavior: The Mediating Effect of Legal Emotions
Provisionally accepted- 1 Tongling University, Tongling, Anhui, China
- 2 Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China
In criminology, the close relationship between legal emotions and adolescent deviant behavior is well-documented. In psychology, parental attachment is strongly associated with children's problematic behavior; however, the role of legal emotions in this relationship remains underexamined. This study investigates the role of legal emotions in the relationship between adolescent parent-child attachment and problematic behavior. Adolescents completed self-report questionnaires. Results revealed that both paternal and maternal attachment significantly negatively predicted adolescent problematic behavior, with paternal attachment explaining a larger proportion of the variance. Even after controlling for factors such as gender and grade level, parental attachment significantly negatively predicted adolescent problematic behavior. Legal emotions partially mediated the relationship between parental attachment and problematic behavior. These findings suggest that fostering positive parent-child relationships and enhancing adolescents' positive legal emotions may be effective strategies for reducing problematic behaviors among youth.
Keywords: Parent-child attachment, problematic behavior, legal emotions, adolescents, positive legal emotions
Received: 18 Dec 2024; Accepted: 17 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 He, Xu and XU. 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:
Shuhui XU, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China
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