ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Mindfulness
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1595515
Parent-Adolescent Intergenerational Transmission of Distress: The Roles of Family Climate, Adolescents' Self-Compassion and Mindfulness
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
- 2Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR China
- 3Xi'an Jiaotong University Kindergarten, Xi’an, China
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Background Existing research indicates that parental psychological distress correlates with adverse psychological outcomes in adolescents. Nevertheless, limited studies have delved into the mechanisms underpinning this relationship. Objective This study aimed to examine whether the link between parental psychological distress and adolescent psychological distress is mediated by the family emotional climate, as well as adolescents' mindfulness and self-compassion. Methods The study sample consisted of 348 parent-adolescent dyads. Adolescents (57.5% female) had a mean age of 14.21 years (SD = 1.74, age range: 12 -18 years). Parents reported their psychological distress, while adolescents completed measures of family emotional climate, mindfulness, self-compassion, and psychological distress. Results The results indicated that parents' psychological distress was indirectly linked to adolescents' psychological distress via the family emotional climate, adolescent mindfulness, and self-compassion. Furthermore, the path models were found to be invariant across different age stages and sexes of adolescents. Conclusions
Keywords: psychological distress, family emotional climate, mindfulness, self-compassion, adolescence
Received: 18 Mar 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhou, Kwan, Ai and Ma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yueyue Ai, Xi'an Jiaotong University Kindergarten, Xi’an, China
Ying Ma, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
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