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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2025 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Int J Soc Welf. 2022 Dec 12;33(2):355–369. doi: 10.1111/ijsw.12578

A Six-Year Longitudinal Study of Parenting and Depressive Symptoms among Taiwanese Adolescents

Shou-Chun Chiang 1, Yu-Hsien Sung 2, Wan-Chen Chen 2
PMCID: PMC11114101  NIHMSID: NIHMS1854797  PMID: 38800468

Abstract

This study investigated the associations between early parental warmth, harsh discipline, and adolescent depressive symptoms from early to late adolescence, with attention to gender differences in these associations. The sample was drawn from a longitudinal study, the Taiwan Youth Project, including 2,690 Taiwanese adolescents from wave 1 in 2000 (first year in junior high school) to wave 6 (third year in high school) in 2005. The results showed a nonlinear developmental trajectory of adolescent depressive symptoms during the middle- to high-school period. Harsh discipline was associated with the significantly higher initial presence and faster growth rate of depressive symptoms, while parental warmth and monitoring were associated with the significantly lower initial presence of depressive symptoms. In addition, female adolescents displayed a higher initial level of depressive symptoms than males when parents exercised higher levels of monitoring and harsh discipline. Finally, we provided suggestions for practice and research.

Keywords: adolescent development, depressive symptoms, parenting, longitudinal study, Chinese culture, Taiwan

Introduction

Adolescence is a period of transition; an individual leaving childhood and entering adolescence faces dramatic physical and psychological changes. Importantly, adolescents are often confronted with many life stressors such as heavier schoolwork than before, peer relations, and family conflict (Chappel et al., 2014; Deng et al., 2021). These stressors are likely to adversely affect adolescent mental health (Grant et al., 2006; Thapar et al., 2012). Positive mental health helps individuals address stress and adapt to adverse environments (Seiffge-Krenke, 1995). More importantly, mental health during adolescence carries long-lasting consequences for one’s physical and mental health and interpersonal relationships during adulthood (Jou, 2015; McLeod et al., 2016; Wang & Chen, 2010; Wickrama et al., 2008). Indeed, studies have shown that adolescence is frequently associated with the first occurrence of mental illnesses such as major depression (Cyranowski et al., 2000) and social anxiety disorder (Haller et al., 2015). To address this critical timing, an increasing number of secondary schools and colleges have provided mental health services and care to adolescents (Mojtabai et al., 2016; Patel et al., 2007; Rickwood et al., 2007). Still, adolescent mental health care warrants more public attention. This paper examines the longitudinal associations between parenting and adolescent depressive symptoms to contribute to our knowledge building on factors important to enhance our adolescent mental health in a society with Eastern culture.

Globally, we have witnessed more adolescents confronted with mental health issues and the current COVID-19 public health crisis has worsened such a trend. As of 2011 about 10–20% of children and adolescents worldwide were confronting mental health issues based on literature published after 2000 (Kieling et al., 2011). Extant research over the past decade since 2005 also revealed a noticeable increase in mental health issues among adolescents (Mojtabai et al., 2016), and among these, depression is of particular concern. The prevalence of depressive symptoms has been escalating among adolescents, signifying a gradual deterioration in adolescent mental health, and more importantly, this has become a common issue worldwide (Shorey et al., 2022; Thapar et al., 2012). For example, the data from the U.S. Monitoring the Future (N = 1,260,159) have reported that the increase in adolescent depressive symptoms from mean scores of 7.67 in 2012 to 9.18 in 2018 (score range: 4–20), based on national trends among adolescents aged 13–18 in the United States (Keyes et al., 2019). A five-year-longitudinal study conducted in Australia (Mission Australia & Black Dog Institute, 2017) reported that the proportion of adolescents aged 15–19 eligible for a diagnosis of serious mental illnesses escalated from 18.7% in 2012 to 22.88% in 2016. The same report indicates that the most significantly worrisome adolescent mental illness being depression resulting from family and school life. Furthermore, a recent meta-analysis study showed that adolescents in Asia generally exhibit a higher prevalence of elevated depressive symptoms (40%) compared to North America (20%) and Europe (16%) from 2001 to 2020 (Shorey et al., 2022).

Depression not only negatively impacts adolescent emotional and mental well-being (Aalto-Setälä et al., 2002; Silk et al., 2003), but also can intertwine with other stressors, forming a vicious circle and thereby producing a devastating impact on adolescent lives, such as poor academic performance and interpersonal relationships in schools, diminishing quality of life and well-being (Hysenbegasi et al., 2005; Maughan et al., 2013), and even sometimes resulting in suicide attempts and death (Gijzen & Rasing, 2021; Kaplan & Sadack, 2007). Moreover, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has further worsened this devasting trend in adolescent mental health. As reported by many countries around the world, a substantially increasing number of adolescents have experienced mental health issues during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic (Penner et al., 2021; Van De Groep et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2020), raising critical questions about how the future generation of the workforce may endure stresses throughout their lifetime.

Adolescents in Taiwan are no exception to the trend described above. A recent 2021 survey by the Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare confirmed that depression had become one of the leading causes of attempted suicide, and the number of suicidal attempts and suicide among 15–19-year-old Taiwanese adolescents and young adults has been rising each year (e.g., 2.8% per 100,000 people in 2015 vs. 6.2% in 2019). Despite the increased rate of depression among adolescents, the public’s general perception considers adolescent depression to be mostly about moodiness and impulsivity, thus possibly ignoring the likelihood of suicide attempts among adolescents (Davaasambuu et al., 2019). To effectively prevent such tragedies, studies have suggested that more carefully examining possible causes of depression could help inform appropriate treatments (e.g., Hankin, 2006; Moir et al., 2018) and thereby help psychologically distressed adolescents to overcome depression and suicidal tendencies. Toward this effort, this study focuses on parenting styles from early to late adolescence as one of the most important factors associated with adolescent depressive symptoms to inform appropriate and effective interventions.

Theoretical Framework

Ecological systems theory underscores the importance of surrounding systems in shaping an individual’s optimal growth and well-being (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). The family is one of the fundamental units of the microsystem with which an individual has direct contact after birth, and such an influence can last throughout a lifetime. Through a family environment, individuals acquire an initial attitude toward the world, develop physically and mentally, learn basic manners and methods of communication, and ultimately form their perspectives and moral foundations (Ebrahimi et al., 2017). Previous research has revealed that how parents treat and educate adolescents is critical to adolescent mental health development (Gorostiag et al., 2019; Keijser et al., 2020). Sheeber et al. (2001) proposed the stress/support framework to explain the close relationship between adolescent depression and the family context. Building upon this framework, extant research has shown that adolescents were more likely to develop depressive symptoms in a family with low levels of support, encouragement, and interaction, and high levels of conflict and discipline. Conversely, the opposite is true: adolescents are at a lower risk of developing depression when growing up in a positive and supportive family context (Compas, 1987; Diamond & Josephson, 2005; Raffaelli et al., 2013; Sheeber et al., 2001).

Whether or not the family environment is supportive has a lot to do with parenting styles (Hill, 1995; Sheeber et al., 2001). Darling and Steinberg (1993) pointed out that parenting style is a constellation of attitudes, goals, and child-rearing patterns that not only shapes the climate of a parent-child relationship but also may remain throughout future life situations. A negative parenting style may affect adolescents adversely through interactions between the parent and the child as a constant and unavoidable source of stressors, thereby affecting adolescent well-being (Sheeber et al., 2001). Indeed, extant research has shown a close relationship between parenting styles and adolescent mental health (Gorostiag et al., 2019; Keijser et al., 2020).

Empirical Evidence on Parenting Style and Adolescent Depression

Parental warmth and harsh discipline are two parenting styles that have drawn the most attention from academia concerning adolescent mental health (Butterfield et al., 2021; Brody et al., 2014; Lowe et al., 2013; Satitas et al., 2013). Previous studies have consistently found that parental warmth has a positive association but harsh discipline has a negative association with adolescent mental health (Callender et al., 2012; Gorostiag et al., 2019; Keijser et al., 2020; Liu & Merritt, 2018; Mckinney et al., 2011; Wang & Chen, 2016). A parenting style that provides parental support, warm acceptance, and love can help parents interact and connect positively with their children, leading to better physical and mental development, and reducing the risk of physical and mental disorders such as depression (Chen & Hsu, 2011; Wang et al., 2015). Conversely, excessively disciplining and controlling may upset children’s developmental needs for independence during adolescence, leading to poor mental health.

However, some studies have argued that viewing parental discipline solely as restricting children’s freedom might be an overly simplified (Chen & Hsu, 2011). Therefore, studies have explored the impact of other parental styles, such as parenting monitoring, on adolescent mental health (Hamza & Willoughby, 2011; Jacobson & Crockett, 2000). Parenting monitoring, a set of parenting behaviors aimed at paying attention to and tracking a child’s whereabouts, activities, and adaptations (Dishion & McMahon, 1998), has been viewed as a middle path between parental warmth and harsh discipline (Jackson-Newsom et al., 2008; Kiesner et al., 2009). Studies have thus suggested that parenting styles in general and monitoring in particular, should be examined and interpreted in a cultural context to arrive at a more refined understanding of the relationship between parenting and adolescent well-being (Pinquart & Kauser, 2018; Xu et al., 2005).

The Importance of Cultural Context

Cultures and context can shape parenting styles (Harkness & Super, 2002). Parents in western societies tend to encourage their children to think and behave independently, while parents tend to prefer their children to obey the traditions and norms in eastern societies (Park & Lau, 2016; Wu et al., 2002). Chinese cultures endorse filial bonds; thus, different parenting styles may represent different meanings to adolescents (Bedford & Yeh, 2019; Yeh et al., 2013). Two unique issues are worth considering. First, children in Chinese cultures tend to be regarded as extensions of their parents and families, leading to social norms that compel Chinese parents to closely monitor their children’s behaviors and habits with the expectation that their conduct conforms to Confucian ethics (Hawk, 2017). Second, Chinese parents often establish high standards for good behavior and academic performance, inducing them to exercise tight control over their children’s routines (Leung & Shek, 2019; Yuwen & Chen, 2013). As individuals are expected to develop self-identities and become independent and autonomous during adolescence (Spear & Kulbok, 2004), heavy-handed control such as those practiced in Chinese society may result in overly-obedient children who are seldom given a chance to engage in self-development (Pomerantz & Wang, 2009; Shek, 2006). An inability of parents to “let go” at an appropriate time can thus impede a child’s exploration of self (Kim & Ge, 2000). However, in a Chinese context, discipline is often regarded as parents not only exercising physical control over their children but also expressing parental love and care (Yee, 2015). Chinese parenting style thus, in general, consists of both ‘love’ and ‘power’ as they not only provide essential daily care to their children but also tend to take full responsibility for their children’s development. In other words, Chinese parents, in the name of love, may tend to interfere with independent decisions made by their children and intervene in all aspects of their children’s lives (Hsu & Wei, 2015). Parental monitoring can be regarded as a prime example of such a combination of love and discipline. Parental monitoring in Chinese society tends to be regarded as parents supervising their children’s behavior because they care about them, and not so much about exercising excessive discipline (Chen & Hsu, 2011). As such, studies have found that Taiwanese children may tend to perceive a lack of demands from parents on them as abandonment and lack of love versus viewing parental control and demands as manifestations of parental aspirations for their attainment of success in life (Cheng et al., 2001).

Hence, parental monitoring seems to be more positively related to adolescent mental health in the Chinese context, instead of being perceived as a harsh discipline. However, there have been relatively scant investigations of the links between parental monitoring and the occurrence of depressive symptoms in a Chinese context, and no consensus has yet been reached. Some studies have shown that moderate supervision can help to slightly reduce adolescents’ negative symptoms such as anxiety and depression (Chen & Hsu, 2011; Kim & Ge, 2000). In contrast, other studies have found either no association (Hsu & Wei, 2015) or a negative association that parental monitoring such as control, monitoring, and discipline might heighten adolescent depression (Lin et al., 2006). In essence, the relationship between parental monitoring and adolescent depression is complex and context-driven, thus warranting more refined studies.

To the best of our knowledge, many studies examining Taiwanese adolescents concerning the relationship between parenting styles and adolescent depression have used cross-sectional data (e.g., Chen & Hsu, 2011; Hsu & Wei, 2015; Lin et al., 2006), with a few studies using a longitudinal approach with time discontinuity (e.g., Jou, 2015). Also, prior studies have only examined one aspect of parenting styles (e.g., harsh discipline or warmth) in relation to adolescents’ mental health (Wu & Huang, 2010; Zhou et al., 2002). Less is known about how multiple parenting styles might contribute to the long-term development of adolescent depressive symptoms. Further investigation into different parenting styles and their associations with depressive symptoms would strengthen our understanding of the role of parenting in adolescent development. This study examines the links between parenting styles and adolescent depressive symptoms through longitudinal data covering six years from early to late adolescence.

Gender Difference in the Association between Parenting Styles and Depressive Symptoms

Theories and empirical studies have attested to critical gender-based differences with respect to mental health throughout human development (Cyranowski et al., 2000; Hyde et al., 2008). Such gender-based differences in mental health may also be related to parenting styles. Previous studies have revealed that, for example, females are more sensitive than males to parenting styles in their mental health development (McKinney et al., 2011; Szkody et al., 2021; van der Bruggen et al., 2008). For example, studies have found that female adolescents were more likely to have a higher level of anxiety with harsh parental discipline than their male counterparts (van der Bruggen et al., 2008). McLean and Anderson (2009) argued that the social norm and value system are critical to gender-based parenting styles in which a male is educated to behave independently and decisively, and therefore more likely to require more proactive coping strategies to address stress and depression. A female, in turn, is encouraged to behave tenderly and sentimentally; since she is neither more likely to deliberately conceal her feelings nor proactively respond to stress, she may exhibit higher levels of depression and anxiety (van der Sluis et al., 2015). Notably, such a situation may be more apparent in the Chinese culture emphasizing that a female should be tender, submissive, and obedient, implying a social value that requires females to be ‘tolerant’ to everything. Therefore, females may have been taught to conform to such a concept of tolerance since childhood, and society has accordingly placed more restrictions on females in terms of their behaviors and expressions of emotions (Li & Chung, 1996). Despite the young generations may have developed a more progressive gender equality ideology, this gender-based rearing practice still exists in Chinese society to some extent (Chen et al., 2014). Hence, females may suffer from stress and accumulate more emotions that are not properly regulated and adjusted, thereby leading to a higher risk of depression.

The present study

Building upon the scholarship on the importance of cultural contexts (Chen & Hsu, 2011; Hsu & Wei, 2015) and gender differences (McKinney et al., 2011; Szkody et al., 2021) in the links between parenting styles and adolescent depression, our study took advantage of a longitudinal dataset collected from a Chinese culture spanning six years to examine the mental health developmental trajectories from early to late adolescence, paying attention to parenting styles and gender differences. Specifically, we examined the following research questions: (1) How do the depressive symptom trajectories of Taiwanese adolescents would look like during their transition from early to late adolescence? (2) how are parenting styles associated with the trajectories of adolescent depressive symptoms, and (3) if parenting styles and the adolescent depressive symptom trajectories are related, are the patterns of the associations different by gender? Building upon previous empirical studies, we hypothesized that parental warmth and monitoring might be associated with lower initial levels and growth rate of depressive symptoms, whereas harsh parental discipline might be associated with higher initial levels and growth rate of depressive symptoms. Furthermore, we hypothesized that the association between parenting styles and depressive symptoms might particularly be more pronounced for females than males in our sample of Taiwanese adolescents.

Methods

Data

Data for the present study were drawn from the Taiwan Youth Project (TYP), conducted by the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. The TYP was a longitudinal study launched in 2000, surveying two cohorts of junior-high school students during their first-year (J1, average age 13) and third-year (J3, average age 15) (Yi et al., 2009). The TYP employed multi-stage stratified cluster sampling to select 40 junior high schools in northern Taiwan representing different levels of urbanization (Yi et al., 2009), including Taipei City (the largest metropolitan city; highest urbanization), Taipei County (industry and manufacturing city; medium urbanization), and Yi-Lan County (agricultural city, lower urbanization), (Chiang & Bai, 2022; Lin & Yi, 2015). Next, the TYP applied cluster sampling to divide the second stratum into two substrata for random sampling, with school and class functioning as the sampling unit in the first and second substrates, respectively. Since the present study aimed to investigate the developmental trajectories of depressive symptoms from the early to late stages of adolescence, we focused on the data on first-year junior high school students (J1) collected between 2000 (Wave 1) and 2006 (Wave 6). As a longitudinal survey, the number of samples varied from wave to wave due to attrition. The numbers of people surveyed in Waves 1 to 6 were 2,690, 2,683, 2,664, 2,354, 2,020, and 1,826, respectively.

Missing rates range from less than 1% (e.g., gender) to about 25% (depressive symptoms at the last wave). Adolescents with missing data at later waves had significantly lower family socioeconomic status (SES), were more likely to be females, and scored higher in depressive symptoms at Wave 1. These differences were at least at 5% significance level. We used multiple imputation by chained equations to address the missing data (Spratt et al., 2010; Young & Johnson, 2015). The final analyzed sample was the full sample of J1 with 2,690 adolescents at Wave 1. The TYP received consent from participants and was approved by the Institute of Review Board of the Academia Sinica. TYP followed ethical protocols and was approved by the Institute of Sociology, Academic Sinica. Informed consent and assent were obtained from the TYP research team. The data were anonymous and publicly available from the Survey Research Data Archive at Academic Sinica.

Measures

Depressive Symptoms.

Adolescents were asked to report their depressive symptoms in the past week using the modified version of Symptom Checklist-90-R (Derogatis, 1983). Since items varied across waves, we selected the seven items that were consistently asked from Waves 1 to 6. These items were measured on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely), with questions about symptoms such as headaches, loneliness, depressed mood, and insomnia. The mean of the items was used to create a depressive symptoms score, with higher scores indicating higher levels of depressive symptoms. The Cronbach’s alphas across waves were between .71 to .79.

Parenting Styles.

Adolescents were asked to report their perceptions of parenting styles drawn from Wave 1 to reflect parenting styles in early adolescence. Following previous studies using TYP (Chiang et al., 2020; Liu & Chiang, 2020; Wang et al., 2015), we evaluated three types of parenting styles: parental warmth, harsh discipline, and monitoring. For parental warmth, adolescents reported their feelings of parental warmth in the past month on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 7 (always). Sample items included “ask for your opinion on important matters,” “carefully listen to your opinions or viewpoints,” and “find opportunities to show that he/she really cares about you.” The mean of the items was used to create a parental warmth score, with higher scores indicating higher levels of parental warmth (α = .88). For harsh discipline, adolescents reported their feelings of harsh discipline in the past month on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 7 (always). Sample items included “argue towards you,” “shout and yell at you furiously,” and “argue with you because you disagree with him/her.” The mean of the items was used to create a harsh discipline score, with higher scores indicating higher levels of harsh discipline (α = .85). For parental monitoring, adolescents reported their general feelings of parental monitoring on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (always). Sample items included “knows your whereabouts every day,” “knows who you are with when you are going out,” and “knows when you are home and what time you go to bed.” The mean of the items was used to create a parental monitoring score, with higher scores indicating higher levels of parental monitoring (α = .76).

Sociodemographic characteristics.

We included a set of sociodemographic characteristics from Wave 1 to address, to a certain degree, the selection bias common for observation data. We include the following characteristics: (1) both parents’ education ranging from 1 (elementary school) to 5 (graduate school) with higher scores indicating more education; (2) the number of siblings and child’s gender (0 = male, 1 = female); (3) children’s academic performance measured by adolescents’ average ranks from the last semester with higher scores indicating better academic performance (i.e., 1 representing ranks after 30 in the class to 5 representing ranks top 5 in the class), and; (4) two school-related variables to account for school and peer characteristics: peer support measured on three items (e.g., my best friends care about me) ranged from 1 (not at all) to 4 (very much) (Chiang & Chen, 2018), and school belongingness measured on three items (e.g., I like my school) ranged from 1 (totally disagree) to 4 (totally agree) (Chiang et al., 2020). Both measures were treated as a continuous variable with a mean score indicating the higher scores, the greater levels of peer support and school belongingness.

Empirical Analysis

To examine the longitudinal trajectories of adolescent depressive symptoms across time, a series of latent growth modeling (LGM) were estimated using the AMOS 23 software (Arbuckle, 2014). Two latent factors were estimated (Preacher et al., 2008): (1) intercept, which represents the initial level at baseline (i.e., depressive symptoms at Wave 1), and; (2) slope, which represents the developmental changes over time (i.e., changes in depressive symptoms from Wave 1 to Wave 6). First, the unconditional growth model was tested to investigate the developmental trajectories of depressive symptoms over time. We applied the unspecified trajectory model in which the first time point was set as 0 and the last time point was set as 1 with other time points freely estimated to capture the spontaneous shape of the target measures (Chan et al., 2000; Preacher et al., 2008). The unspecified trajectory model can describe the increases and decreases in depressive symptoms without pre-defined trajectories (e.g., linear, quadratic shapes). Next, we conducted conditional LGM to include parenting styles and sociodemographic characteristics described above, predicting the latent intercept and slope for depressive symptoms. As the last step, we examined the gender differences in conditional LGM via testing the measurement invariance. Specifically, we examined the coefficients of parenting styles on the latent intercept and slope between male and female adolescents through multi-group analyses. The goodness of fit was assessed with three indicators: root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) value below .08, comparative fit index (CFI) value greater than .95, and normed fit index (NFI) value greater than .95, indicating a good model fit (Bentler & Bonett, 1980; Hu & Bentler, 1999). Multiple imputation was used to account for the missing data. To evaluate the measurement invariance, we first examined model changes in CFI (△CFI) with a cutoff of △CFI less than .01, indicating invariance (Cheung & Rensvold, 2002). Based on measurement invariance, we then investigated the gender differences in coefficients using a statistical model fit with changes in chi-square (Δχ2) to determine whether the associations between parenting styles and depressive symptoms (intercept, slope) were significantly different between male and female adolescents.

Results

Descriptive Statistics

Table 1 presents the descriptive statistics of the mean and standard deviations of depressive symptoms by wave along with three parenting styles, as well as the correlation coefficients between them. First, adolescents had mean scores of depressive symptoms of 1.47, 1.48, and 1.65 over three junior high years, suggesting a slight increase in depressive symptoms during early adolescence. Second, adolescents had mean scores of depressive symptoms of 1.32, 1.29, and 1.60 over three senior high school years, indicating a slight decrease and then an increase in depressive symptoms during late adolescence. Table 1 also presents the correlations between focal variables. Specifically, the depressive symptoms of the six waves all exhibited moderate to high correlations among each other. In addition, all correlations were statistically significant at least at 5% level regarding the relationship between parenting style and depression. Specifically, all three parenting styles were statistically significantly correlated with a lower level of depressive symptoms.

Table 1.

Pearson Correlations among Main Variables.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
1. Depressive symptoms w1 --
2. Depressive symptoms w2 .51*** --
3. Depressive symptoms w3 .48*** .56*** --
4. Depressive symptoms w4 .31*** .41*** .42*** --
5. Depressive symptoms w5 .32*** .38*** .41*** .43*** --
6. Depressive symptoms w6 .30*** .43*** .45*** .40*** .43*** --
7. Parental warmth −.14** −.10** −.08** −.10** −.08** −.06* --
8. Harsh discipline .25*** .15*** .14** .10** −.08** .10** −.15*** --
9. Parental monitoring −.13** −.06** −.05* −.11** −.05* −.05* .35*** −.09** --
 Mean 1.47 1.48 1.65 1.32 1.29 1.60 3.78 2.44 3.64
 SD .56 .53 .60 .44 .40 .58 1.40 1.08 .91
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Note.

*

p < .05,

**

p < .01,

***

p < .001.

Table 2 presents the descriptive statistics of the sociodemographic characteristics. There was about an equal share of male and female adolescents in the sample. The majority of mothers and fathers had educational levels of junior high or high school. Most of the adolescents had either no or one sibling at home. Additionally, adolescents reported medium levels of academic performance, peer support, and school belongingness.

Table 2.

Descriptive statistics of sociodemographic variables.

Variables Percent or Mean (SD)
Adolescent gender (%)
 Female 51.2
 Male 48.8
Maternal education level (%)
 Elementary school or lower 16.5
 Junior high school 24.2
 High school 33.4
 College/University 12.4
 Graduate school 1.2
Paternal education level (%)
 Elementary school or lower 12.8
 Junior high school 24.1
 High school 30.6
 College/University 16.2
 Graduate school 3.3
Numbers of siblings (%)
 0 39.2
 1 35.5
 2 15.2
> 3 5.8
Academic performance 3.04 (1.18)
Peer support 3.24 (0.54)
School belongingness 3.00 (0.58)
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Unconditional Latent Growth Model

The results of unconditional LGM are presented in Figure 1, achieving a good model fit (RMSEA = .041; CFI = .95; NFI = .94). Factor loadings ranged from .22 (Wave 2) to −1.82 (Wave 5), suggesting that adolescent depressive symptoms slowly rose in the second year of junior high school and escalated the following year. In terms of measurement errors, error variances of e1 to e6 were 4.50 to 9.95, attaining statistical significance, and none of the error variances were negative, indicating that the model was not affected by measurement biases with the excellent model fit (Grimm et al., 2016; Yu, 2014). The covariance between the intercept and slope was .98, indicating that adolescents with a higher level of depressive symptoms in the first year of junior high school experienced a faster increase in depressive symptoms over time. The fixed effect results indicated that the intercept and slope of depressive symptoms averaged 10.34 and .71, respectively, both attaining statistical significance. These results suggest that the initial value of adolescent depressive symptoms was 10.34 at Wave 1 and increased by .71 per wave from the first year of junior high school to the third year of senior high school. The random effect results demonstrate that the variance of intercept was 6.01 (p < .001). Similarly, the variance of the slope was .28, also achieving statistical significance (p < .001). These results demonstrate significant individual differences in the initial levels and slopes of adolescent depressive symptoms. Factor loadings of slope in the unconditional growth model indicate that the growth rates during these six waves were 0, .22, 1.76, −1.47, −1.82, and 1, with Waves 2 to 5 obtaining statistical significance, suggesting that adolescent depressive symptoms slowly rose in the second year of junior high school, escalated the following year, decreased in the first year of senior high school, continued to drop in the next year, but started to rise again in the third year.

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1.

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LGM model of the development of depressive symptoms (unstandardized)

Conditional Latent Growth Model

As shown in Figure 2, the conditional LGM fit the data well (RMSEA = .040, CFI = .95, NFI = .94). After considering sociodemographic characteristics detailed in the Measures section, results in Figure 2 indicate that parental warmth was associated with lower intercept of depressive symptoms (β = −.08, p < .01) but not slope (β = −.02, p > .05). Harsh discipline was associated with higher intercept of depressive symptoms (β = .22, p < .001) as well as slope (β = .25, p < .01). Parental monitoring was associated with lower intercept of depressive symptoms (β = −.11, p < .01) but not slope. In addition, among sociodemographic characteristics, academic performance was positively associated with the intercept (β = .15, p < .01) and slope (β = .20, p < .01) of depressive symptoms, and peer support was negatively associated with the intercept (β = −.10, p < .01) of depressive symptoms.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2.

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Standardized coefficients for the complete model.

Note. PM: Parental warmth; HD: Harsh Discipline, PM: Parental monitoring. DS: Depressive symptoms.

* p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001.

Gender Differences

Measurement invariance of the theoretical model was tested to examine if the associations between parenting styles and depressive symptoms might differ by gender. Multigroup models of male and female adolescents were tested first, as shown in Table 3. Because the results of male-only and female-only models (i.e., individual growth models), as well as baseline and factor-loading equivalent models, demonstrated acceptable goodness of fit, the nested model of multi-group analysis was applied to test both groups simultaneously. As shown in Table 4, the results showed that harsh discipline and parental monitoring achieved significant differences between female and male adolescents based on △χ2 tests. Specifically, the associations between harsh discipline and the intercept of depressive symptoms were significantly higher among female adolescents (β = .34, p < .001) compared to male adolescents (β = .22, p <. 001). Similarly, the negative associations between parental monitoring and the intercept of depressive symptoms were significantly higher among female adolescents (β = −.40, p < .001) compared to male adolescents (β = −.15, p <. 05). Last, the associations between academic performance and the intercept of depressive symptoms were stronger among female adolescents (β = .49, p < .001) than males (β = .10, p < .05) among all covariates.

Table 3.

Model Measurement Invariance.

Models χ2 df RMSEA CFI NFI IFI ΔCFI ΔNFI ΔIFI
Male-only 149.70 59 .050 .98 .97 .98 -- -- --
Female-only 136.30 59 .045 .99 .97 .99 -- -- --
Baseline 1685.36 474 .031 .94 .93 .95 -- -- --
Factor loading 1787.12 491 .031 .94 .92 .94 .004 .005 .004
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Table 4.

Multigroup Analysis on Structural Estimates between Groups.

Female Male Equal Model Δχ2
harsh discipline → intercept .34*** .22*** −.24*** 5.41*
parental monitoring → intercept −.40*** −.15* .26*** 4.87*
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Note.

*

p < .05,

**

p < .01,

***

p < .001.

Discussion

The current study investigated how parenting styles might be associated with Taiwanese adolescents’ developmental trajectories of depressive symptoms from early to late adolescence. The results indicate that adolescent depressive symptoms increased during junior high school years, while decreasing during the transition to high school from the third year in junior high school to the first year in high school. Moreover, adolescents who exhibited a higher level of depressive symptoms in the first year of junior high school showed a faster growth rate of depressive symptoms in subsequent years, indicating a polarized phenomenon. In other words, adolescents high in depressive symptoms in early adolescence would also experience more significant increases in depressive symptoms over time. Such results highlight the importance of providing early prevention and intervention efforts in curtailing the worsening trend of depressive symptoms over time.

Another noteworthy outcome is that the developmental trajectories of depressive symptoms were similar to a reverse U, suggesting a nonlinear developmental trajectory with various growth rates experienced at different stages. Such a pattern may be a result of the educational context in Taiwan. Academic stress and school life have been documented as the major sources of psychological distress and depression for Taiwanese adolescents (Chen et al., 2015; Gao et al.,2020). Therefore, adolescents may exhibit greater depressive symptoms when they are close to the national tests for high school and college in the last year of junior and senior high school.

The findings of this study suggest that parental warmth and monitoring were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms in the first year of junior high school, whereas harsh discipline was associated with higher initial levels of and faster increases in depressive symptoms. These results are consistent with the past research, indicating that parents’ warm interactions can help adolescents lower internalizing problems and psychological distress (Chiang & Bai, 2022; Quach et al., 2015), whereas parents’ harsh discipline can heighten adolescents’ internalizing problems and psychological burden (Riggins-Caspers et al., 2003; Wang & Liu, 2014). In particular, harsh discipline may reflect the problematic parenting and family environment and thus have long-lasting influences on the development of depressive symptoms across adolescence as shown in our results.

Importantly, our results indicate that parental monitoring was associated with lower levels of adolescent depressive symptoms. This might be due to the cultural norm that appropriately monitoring children’s daily life is conducive to lowering adolescent depressive symptoms, as shown in previous studies (Jun & Choi, 2013; Yu et al., 2006). Furthermore, our results point to the cultural differences in perceiving support. Although it is beyond the scope of the paper, we speculate that individuals in Collectivism-oriented societies view emotional support as less important than Individualism-oriented societies; instead, individuals in Collectivism tend to value instrumental skills and indirect support (Burleson, 2003; Wang et al., 2019). Adolescents in Taiwan may consider parental monitoring as a subtle expression of parents’ love and care, and thus a suitable level of monitoring might be perceived better by adolescents than no such monitoring from parents.

Last, the results show females and males reacted differently to parenting styles in terms of their developmental trajectories of depressive symptoms. Our study indicates that female adolescents reported higher levels of harsh discipline from their parents and experienced heightened depressive symptoms compared to male adolescents. In contrast, female adolescents who reported higher levels of parental monitoring showed fewer depressive symptoms than male adolescents. These results suggest that female adolescents might be more sensitive or reactive than males to parenting styles. Past studies have shown that female adolescents tend to experience more significant negative emotional reactions to stressful events than males (Charbonneau et al., 2009; Hampel & Petermann, 2006), leading to the differential vulnerability between girls and boys (Hankin et al., 2007). These gender differences evident in literature might contribute to the current findings that parenting styles are more likely to have a stronger association with female adolescents’ depressive symptoms than males. It is also worth noting that harsh discipline on adolescent depressive symptoms was not limited to the short-term association; rather, harsh parenting was associated with a faster increase rate of having more depressive symptoms throughout adolescence.

Limitations

This study has several limitations that should be considered while interpreting the results. First, due to the data at hand, this study could not measure parenting styles by considering the gender of the parents. Some researchers have shown that adolescents react differently to how fathers and mothers practice parenting. Thus, parenting styles should be measured separately or independently to determine their individual effects on children (McKinney & Renk, 2008; Kawabata et al., 2011). For example, previous studies have found that adolescents may react more negatively to fathers parenting behaviors (e.g., father’s academic pressure) compared to mothers’ parenting behaviors (Quach et al., 2015). Second, although the LGM was used to examine the developmental trajectories of adolescent depressive symptoms over time, such analysis could only establish associations instead of causation. Still, this statistical approach provides a systematic look at the mental health development that is important in and of itself. Third, despite the TYP applying a sophisticated sampling strategy, the TYP was not nationally representative data, limiting the generalizability of the results. Fourth, only a very limited set of covariates (e.g., parents’ education, adolescent gender, academic performance) were considered. For example, previous studies showed that child abuse and neglect, bullying victimization, and dating violence, which have been shown on the rise, were also significant risk factors for youth depressive symptoms in Taiwan (Hsieh et al., 2019; Yen et al., 2008; Yen et al., 2014). Further research could evaluate these factors in relation to Taiwanese adolescents’ development of depressive symptoms. Last but not least, the data were collected in 2000, casting doubts on the applicability of these results to the current cohorts of adolescents. Given the first wave of the data was collected twenty years ago, the results of the study might be subject to societal attitudinal shifts in family interactions and parenting behaviors. The TYP data still represent one of the large-scale, longitudinal data on adolescents and their families over time in Taiwan. This longitudinal dataset thus provides unique opportunities to examine the developmental trajectory of adolescent depressive symptoms. However, the results of the current study may be outdated and different from the contemporary adolescent development in Taiwan since the data were first collected in 2000. Considering this limitation, our understanding of parenting and adolescent development would benefit from more updated data to account for the contemporary changes in parenting styles as well as adolescents’ depressive symptoms. For instance, parental warmth, encouragement, and support are more common among current Taiwanese parents (Chen & Chou, 2020). In addition, adolescent depressive symptoms and mental health problems also increase in Taiwan such that the rates of suicidal adolescents are increasing from 2017 to 2019 (Pan et al., 2021). Future research could replicate and compare the findings with the current families.

Despite these limitations, the present study provides important information and has practical implications for adolescents’ mental health. First, our findings concerning parental monitoring and harsh parenting have critical implications for our efforts to address adolescent depression. Specifically, our findings advocate for family screening and intervention concerning parenting styles (e.g., monitoring vs. harsh discipline). Interventions to promote parental monitoring and reduce harsh discipline among families with children and adolescents may be particularly helpful for preventing adolescent depression in response to parenting behaviors. School-based intervention efforts (e.g., providing parents with vital information on tips and suggestions for managing adolescent behaviors) might prove feasible and effective as parents in Chinese societies hold high regard for teachers and schools (Chen et al., 2021; Deng et al., 2018). It is also important for prevention programs to strengthen and increase parental monitoring in early adolescence, as monitoring is often less considered in family-based prevention and interventions. Second, the study expands on previous research by examining the developmental trajectory of depressive symptoms over six years. We found that depressive symptoms are not a linear developmental process; if anything, adolescent depressive symptoms are closely related to parenting styles and contexts (e.g., the education system in Taiwan). Although beyond the scope of this paper, our results may point to the importance of the education system in Taiwan that could shape adolescents’ daily life and impact their changes in depressive symptoms. Practitioners and school counselors should pay particular attention to adolescents’ mental health when they prepare for the high school and college entrance examinations. Also, adolescents who are high in depressive symptoms tend to experience greater increases in depressive symptoms, suggesting that early identification and intervention are necessary for protecting these vulnerable adolescents in early adolescence. For example, practitioners and school counselors could utilize preventive screening during junior high school years to identify adolescents at high risk for depression. Finally, our results concerning gender differences suggest that female adolescents are more sensitive to parenting, with implications for prevention and clinical interventions among practitioners working with adolescents. For example, interventions should focus on promoting females’ abilities to utilize adaptive regulations to harsh parenting, as well as preventing the occurrence of harsh discipline in their families. Another target is facilitating parental monitoring in current family-based interventions for reducing female adolescents’ depressive symptoms. Together, these results underscore the importance of examining adolescents’ depressive symptoms longitudinally and targeting parenting styles that may help to enhance mental health in adolescence in Chinese society.

Practitioner Points.

  • Depressive symptoms vary according to adolescent development and educational context

  • Parenting, especially harsh discipline, is associated with more depressive symptoms

  • Female adolescents are more sensitive than male adolescents to parenting styles concerning depressive symptoms

Acknowledgement:

The abstract was presented in the 6th The Consortium of Institutes on Family in the Asian Region (CIFA) Family First: Supporting Asian Families in the era of Inclusive Growth, 10-11 June, 2021 (Virtual Conference).

Funding:

Shou-Chun Chiang was supported by the Prevention and Methodology Training Program (T32 DA017629; MPIs: J. Maggs & S. Lanza) with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Drug Abuse or the National Institutes of Health.

Footnotes

Conflicts of interest: none

Ethics approval statement: The TYP received consent from participants and was approved by the Institute of Review Board of the Academia Sinica. TYP followed ethical protocols and was approved by the Institute of Sociology, Academic Sinica. Informed consent and assent were obtained from the TYP research team.

Data availability statement:

The data are publicly available from the Survey Research Data Archive at Academic Sinica.

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Associated Data

This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

Data Availability Statement

The data are publicly available from the Survey Research Data Archive at Academic Sinica.

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