Like No Other? A Family-Specific Network Approach to Parenting Adolescents

J Youth Adolesc. 2024 Apr;53(4):982-997. doi: 10.1007/s10964-023-01912-5. Epub 2023 Dec 6.

Abstract

Numerous theories suggest that parents and adolescents influence each other in diverse ways; however, whether these influences differ between subgroups or are unique to each family remains uncertain. Therefore, this study explored whether data-driven subgroups of families emerged that exhibited a similar daily interplay between parenting and adolescent affective well-being. To do so, Subgrouping Group Iterative Multiple Model Estimation (S-GIMME) was used to estimate family-specific dynamic network models, containing same- and next-day associations among five parenting practices (i.e., warmth, autonomy support, psychological control, strictness, monitoring) and adolescent positive and negative affect. These family-specific networks were estimated for 129 adolescents (Mage = 13.3, SDage = 1.2, 64% female, 87% Dutch), who reported each day on parenting and their affect for 100 consecutive days. The findings of S-GIMME did not identify data-driven subgroups sharing similar parenting-affect associations. Instead, each family displayed a unique pattern of temporal associations between the different practices and adolescent affect. Thus, the ways in which parenting practices were related to adolescents' affect in everyday life were family specific.

Keywords: Adolescence; Heterogeneity; Idiographic; Intensive longitudinal data; Parenting; Person-specific.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adolescent Behavior* / psychology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Male
  • Parent-Child Relations
  • Parenting* / psychology
  • Parents / psychology