Parent-Adolescent Communication: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model within a Family Group Cognitive-Behavioral Preventive Intervention with Families of Depressed Parents

Abstract

Positive communication between parents and adolescents is important for healthy psychosocial development. Extant literature examining the links between communication and psychopathology is limited by cross-sectional designs, inconsistent definitions of key constructs, and self-report assessments of parent-adolescent communication. By contrast, behavioral observation offers an objective, systematic method for assessing communication. The current study examined cross-sectional, longitudinal, and bidirectional associations between observed communication and psychopathology among a high-risk sample of youth and parents with a history of depression in the context of a cognitive behavioral preventive intervention. Participants included 180 adolescents (M = 11.46 years) and one of their parents enrolled in a randomized controlled trial. Communication composite scores for parents and adolescents were created with codes from The Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales at baseline and six-months post intervention. Youths’ anxiety and depression symptoms were assessed with the Youth Self-Report, and parents’ anxiety and depression symptoms were assessed with the Beck Depression and Beck Anxiety Inventory, respectively. Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) data analysis was implemented utilizing an R analysis program, “APIM_SEM.” APIM models evidenced a significant parent actor effect, such that better parent communication was associated with lower parent anxiety/depression symptoms at baseline ( = -0.21, p = .02). There was also a significant parent partner effect, such that greater parent communication was associated with fewer adolescent anxiety/depression symptoms ( = -0.23, p = .01) at baseline. Results from a longitudinal APIM model did not find any significant actor or partner effects between communication and anxiety/depression symptoms (ps > .05). There were significant within-person actor effects, whereby greater symptoms and better communication at baseline predicted greater symptoms and better communication at 6-month follow-up for both parents ( = 0.55, p = <.001) and adolescents ( = 0.58, p = <.001). Finally, there was a significant adolescent partner effect, such that greater adolescent symptoms at baseline were associated with fewer parent symptoms at 6-months ( = -0.18, p = .02). Results suggest significant cross-sectional dyadic associations between parent communication and parent and adolescent anxiety/depression symptoms. Additional research is needed to understand the unexpected association between greater adolescent symptoms and fewer parent symptoms