Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: Longitudinal Effects Of Emotional Regulation Moderated By Parental Support

Low parental support and emotional regulation difficulties have been associated with depression in adolescence. Attending to the Transactional Model, the interaction of these variables may influence an adaptive/non-adaptive trajectory. Concerning there are few studies about these variables interaction effects, it might be important to understand better what are the effects and the possible implications on adolescent depressive symptomatology. The present longitudinal study analysed the parental support as a moderator on cognitive emotional regulation strategies effects on depressive symptomatology in adolescence, more specifically the moderating effects of mother support and father support perceived by the adolescent. A community sample consisted of 566 Portuguese adolescents (60.25% female), with ages between 13 to 17 years old, participated by completing self-response questionnaires, assessing in the first moment the cognitive strategies of emotional regulation and the parental support, and in a second moment, six months later, the depressive symptomatology. After controlling gender effects, there was only a significant moderating effect between mother support and acceptance emotional regulation strategy. In the present study, acceptance revealed as a maladaptive emotional regulation strategy, contrary to what was expected. The results suggested that when adolescents highly resort to acceptance in a maladaptive way, low levels of mother support may lead to an increase in the depressive symptomatology levels, compared to a high perception of support. This means that mother support might protect from developing depressive symptomatology when adolescents highly misuse acceptance.