Children's effortful control moderates the relationship between parental psychological control and adolescents' depressive symptoms

The present study examined the interactions of adolescents' temperamental effortful control and parental psychological control on adolescents' depressive symptoms in China. A total of 440 adolescents between the ages of 14 and 20 years (M-age = 15.7) participated in this study. Data on parental psychological control, adolescents' depressive symptoms and effortful control were collected from self-reports. Results showed that adolescents' effortful control moderated the link between paternal psychological control and adolescents' depressive symptoms. Specifically, for adolescents with low levels of effortful control, paternal psychological control was positively associated with increased depressive symptoms whereas for adolescents with a high level of effortful control, this association was not significant. In addition, maternal psychological control was associated with adolescents' depressive symptoms. These findings confirmed and extended previous findings on the associations between parental psychological control, children's temperament effortful control, and depressive symptoms in adolescence.