This study aimed to examine the association between childhood maltreatment, parent-child relationship quality with psychological symptoms and to explore the moderating role of parent-child relationship quality in the association between childhood maltreatment and psychological symptoms among adolescents. It also probed to the role of gender differences in this effect. A representative sample of 14,500 middle school students in China were asked to complete a standard questionnaire on the details of childhood maltreatment, parent-child relationship quality, and psychological symptoms. All data were analyzed using SPSS 23.0. The PROCESS program was used to analyze whether parent-child relationship quality moderated the link between childhood maltreatment and psychological symptoms. The analyses revealed significant correlations between childhood maltreatment, parent-child relationship quality, and psychological symptoms (p < .001). Specifically, paternal relationship quality moderated the association between childhood maltreatment and psychological symptoms in the total sample (B = -0.01, p < .05) and the subgroup of girls (B = -0.01, p < .05), while maternal relationship quality moderated only the association between childhood maltreatment and psychological symptoms in the subgroup of boys (B = -0.01, p < .05). As the findings indicate, priority should be given to the quality of parent-child relationship and gender-specific methods employed to effectively reduce the psychological symptoms of adolescents with a history of childhood maltreatment.
Keywords: adolescents; childhood maltreatment; moderating variables; parent-child relationship quality; psychological symptoms.