Stepfamily Relationship Quality and Stepchildren’s Depression in Adolescence and Adulthood
Year: 2016
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Before reaching adulthood, one-third of all youth in the United States will reside in a stepfamily household-a familial context marked by distinct challenges. Relatively few studies have explored family processes that promote youth adjustment in stepfamilies, and even fewer studies have examined these links across adolescence, emerging adulthood, and beyond. To address these gaps, we use a nationally representative sample of 758 adolescent stepchildren to examine the concurrent and long-term influence of mother-child, stepfather-child, nonresident father-child, and stepcouple relationship quality on stepchildren's depression across three stages of development: adolescence, emerging adulthood, and young adulthood. Results from longitudinal structural equation modeling indicate that higher quality mother-child and stepfather-child relationships are directly associated with reductions in depression during adolescence, and indirectly associated with reductions in depression during emerging and young adulthood via prior levels of depression; higher quality stepcouple relationships are directly associated with reductions in depression during emerging and young adulthood.
Source: Emerging Adulthood
Authors: Todd M. Jensen, Kathleen Mullan Harris
Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Language: English
Subfield: Demography
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2528863829