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Psychological maladjustment mediates the link between remembrances of parental rejection in childhood and loneliness in adulthood: A cross-cultural comparative study.

ABSTRACT: Drawing stimulus from interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory, this multicultural study examined relations between men's versus women's remembrances of maternal and paternal acceptance-rejection in childhood and their current level of loneliness, as mediated by adults' self-reported psychological maladjustment. Adults (N = 899) from five nations (Iraq, Italy, the Netherlands, Pakistan, and the United States) responded to the Adult version of the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire-short form for mothers and fathers, the Adult version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire-short form, and the Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Loneliness Scale. Adults' remembrances of maternal and paternal rejection in childhood significantly and independently predicted feelings of loneliness but remembered paternal rejection was more strongly related to these feelings than were remembrances of maternal rejection. Psychological maladjustment fully mediated the effect of remembered maternal rejection but only partially mediated the effect of remembered paternal rejection on loneliness. There were no significant differences in these results across the five countries or genders. Overall, the results suggest that adults' remembrances of parental rejection in childhood-along with the theoretically expected development of psychological maladjustment-are likely to be associated panculturally with the experience of loneliness in adulthood.

SUBMITTER: Rohner RP

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7103494 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundPrior studies have explored the association between perceived parental rejection-warmth and adolescents' rumination, but it is unclear whether the interaction between perceived parental rejection and warmth can predict adolescents' rumination in a Chinese context and whether this interaction varies by children's gender during the post-COVID-19 era.ObjectiveThis study aimed to address these issues in Chinese early adolescents from a family system perspective.MethodsA total of 910 adolescents (M age = 13.63, 48.50% female) from two middle schools in Chongqing and Changsha, China participated in the survey, answering measures for demographics, perceived parental rejection-warmth, and rumination.ResultsThe results show that adolescents' rumination was positively related to perceived paternal rejection (r = 0.326, p <.001) and maternal rejection (r = 0.343, p <.001), and negatively related to perceived paternal warmth (r = -.184, p <.001) and maternal warmth (r = -0.125, p <.001). Moreover, perceived maternal warmth significantly moderated the link between perceived paternal rejection and adolescents' rumination (boot effect = -0.066, 95CI% = [-0.124, -0.010]), but this moderating effect is only presented in boys not in girls (boot effect = -0.063, 95CI% = [-0.015, 0.140]). However, perceived paternal warmth moderated the link between perceived maternal rejection and rumination in adolescents (boot effect = -0.052, 95CI% = [-0.103, -0.001]), and this interaction varied by adolescents' gender (boot effect = 0.103, 95CI% = [0.029, 0.177]).ConclusionsPerceived Parental rejection and parental warmth co-exist in the Chinese family system, and they exert an interactive effect on adolescents' rumination depending on their gender. It implies that both parents should be more accepting, caring, considerate, and warm toward their daughters, and it is also in line with the tradition and status quo of parenting in Chinese families. These findings have implications for Chinese parental co-parenting practices in families with adolescents and adolescence mental health counseling work.

Project description:ObjectivesMost researchers have examined forms of loneliness as discrete and emotional distress. The approach proposed in this study captures the reality that many persons experience more than one dimension of loneliness-varying degrees coupled with their psychological well-being in a family context. This study explores the latent structure of loneliness during young adulthood and its association with psychological well-being, as well as how these are related to their family characteristics in adolescence.MethodsData are from 2,748 young people, a cohort sample from the Taiwan Youth Project (TYP). Loneliness was assessed by a 6-item de Jong-Gierveld short scale with emotional and social loneliness domains. We describe the clustering between loneliness domains and psychological well-being, namely depressive symptoms, self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, and alcohol use using latent class cluster analysis. In addition to incorporating the Taiwanese family context, multivariate multinomial logistic regression models included data on family cohesion and parental guan (parental control) in adolescence. This might be associated with choices in partnership and childbearing, and influence loneliness in young adulthood.ResultsOur results demonstrate a three-cluster model of loneliness involving emotional loners, serious emotional loners, and severe emotional/social loners. We also found that a feeling of serious emotional loneliness and severe emotional/social loneliness were significantly associated with psychological well-being, even adjusting for individual characteristics. Among young adults who had a partner, the married adults were significantly less likely to feel serious emotional loneliness than those who were living alone. Furthermore, young adults with stronger family cohesion during early adolescence were less likely to suffer from serious emotional loneliness (Relative risk ratios [RRR] 0.77, 95% CI 0.65-0.91) and severe emotional/social loneliness (RRR 0.54, 95% CI 0.34-0.85) in young adulthood.DiscussionThis measurement strategy provides a foundation for future research into how experts can address loneliness clusters in order to better understand psychological well-being during young adulthood and family context in adolescence. This is important because our results suggest that the various loneliness domains do not occur independently, but rather are embedded in patterns and are associated with family characteristics.

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Psychological maladjustment mediates the link between remembrances of parental rejection in childhood and loneliness in adulthood: A cross-cultural comparative study.

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