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Panel information
Panel 14. Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

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Adolescents who are victimized by their peers are expected to benefit from parental warmth and higher parent-child relationship quality (Zhou et al., 2022). However, past literature suggests that peer victimization predicts poorer parenting and negative parent-child relationships (e.g., Infante-Cañete et al., 2022). The evidence that parenting quality declines in the context of peer victimization is concerning and inconsistent with the theoretical models suggesting that parents might show higher warmth and support in response to peer victimization (Erath et al., 2020; Grusec & Davidov, 2010). The current study aims to reconcile the discrepancy between theoretical and empirical research by examining the adolescent behavioral and emotional conditions (i.e., externalizing and internalizing problems) under which parenting is more or less positive following peer victimization using a multi-informant, longitudinal design.
The sample included 80 adolescents (Mage = 12.36 years, SD = 1.33, 55% Black adolescents, 42.5% White adolescents, and 2.5% adolescents of other races or ethnicities, 45% females) and one parent/guardian per adolescent at T1 and T2 (10-12 months later). Adolescents reported on parental warmth, and parents reported on adolescents’ peer victimization experiences, externalizing and internalizing difficulties, and parent-child relationship quality.
Significant interactions supported our first hypothesis and showed that peer victimization predicted lower parental warmth and lower parent-child relationship quality at higher levels of externalizing problems, but not at lower levels of externalizing problems (Table 1, for an example see Figure 1). Based on the domain-specific theory of socialization (Grusec & Davidov, 2010), when adolescents experience peer victimization and demonstrate aggressive or non-compliant behaviors, parents might operate in the “control domain” and prioritize correcting problem behaviors at the expense of operating in the “protection domain” and attending to peer victimization experiences by showing higher warmth. Furthermore, when adolescents show higher externalizing problems, parents might make internal and global causal attributions, believing that the cause of the problem is within the child and generalizable across situations (Sawrikar & Dadds, 2018). That is, parents of adolescents with high externalizing problems may attribute challenges across different contexts, including the peer context, to their child, potentially resulting in more negative parenting (e.g., Mouton et al., 2022).
Providing partial support for our second hypothesis, findings showed that greater peer victimization predicted lower parental warmth and lower parent-child relationship quality at lower levels of internalizing problems, but not at higher levels of internalizing problems. These findings suggest that showing signs of distress may have protected adolescents against the lower levels of parental warmth and parent-child relationship quality that often follows peer victimization. Yet, it remains concerning that even when adolescents show higher internalizing symptoms, higher peer victimization fails to elicit more positive parenting.
The current study is the first to examine adolescents’ behavioral and emotional functioning as moderators of the associations between peer victimization and parental warmth and parent-child relationship quality. The findings highlight the need for parents to distinguish adolescents’ peer victimization experiences and their behavioral difficulties to ensure that adolescents get the psychological protection they need in the context of peer victimization.

Author information

Author	Role
Zeynep Su Altinoz, Auburn University	Presenting author
Gregory S Pettit, Auburn University	Non-presenting author
Stephen A Erath, Auburn University	Non-presenting author

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