ERIC Number: EJ1466408
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Apr
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0140-1971
EISSN: EISSN-1095-9254
Available Date: 2024-12-13
Mother-Adolescent Relationship and Psychological Distress during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study
Atsushi Sakai1; Hiroto Murohashi2; Seiji Watanabe
Journal of Adolescence, v97 n3 p700-712 2025
Introduction: This study aims to investigate how mother-adolescent relationships evolved before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and their correlation with pandemic-related stress and adolescents' psychological distress. Methods: A longitudinal study involving 579 mother-adolescent dyads (junior high school students at Time 1; 50% male students) was conducted, with data collected before (October 2019) and during (October 2020) the pandemic in Japan. Both mothers and adolescents reported the perceived quality of their positive and conflictual relationships at each time point. At Time 2, assessments were made regarding perceived pandemic-related stress and adolescent psychological distress. Results: Structural equation modeling, cross-lagged regression, and mediation analysis revealed that perceptions of relationships by both mothers and adolescents before the pandemic predicted and sustained their own and their partners' perceptions during the pandemic. Furthermore, adolescents' perceptions of positive relationships with mothers protected against adolescents' distress. Otherwise, their perceptions of conflictual relationships with mothers posed a risk for adolescents' psychological distress. Additionally, the maintenance of adolescents' higher perception of positive relationships with their mothers was mediated by their perceived higher pandemic-related stress. Conclusions: These findings underscore the reciprocal and additive nature of mothers' and adolescents' perceptions of relationship quality, which in turn predict adolescents' mental health during stressful situations like a pandemic. Moreover, adolescents are encouraged not to suppress negative feelings about stress, to enhance perceptions of a positive relationship perceptions with their mother.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Junior High School Students, Mothers, COVID-19, Pandemics, Parent Student Relationship, Stress Variables, Positive Attitudes, Positive Reinforcement, Positive Behavior Supports, Coping, Emotional Adjustment, Mental Health, Student Development, Behavior Development, Affective Behavior
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www-wiley-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Japan
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan; 2Faculty of Literature, Kanazawa Gakuin University, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan