Long-Term Effects of Perceived Parental Control and Warmth on Self-Esteem and Depressive Symptoms Among Asian American Youth

Background and Purpose: Prior research has documented the associations between parenting styles and adolescents’ emotional and behavioral difficulties. Less is known, however, about the long-term effects of parenting styles on mental health status among Asian American youth and within-group differences in these processes. The purpose of this study was to examine the subgroup differences in the prevalence of parental control, parental warmth, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms among Asian American youth by nativity and primary language spoken at home (i.e., AA1=U.S. born/English speaking; AA2=U.S. born/non-English speaking; AA3=foreign born/English speaking; AA4=foreign born/ non-English speaking). Asian American subgroup differences in the pathways of parental control and warmth on adolescents’ self-esteem and depressive symptoms over time were also investigated.

Methods: The data for this study derived from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). The current study used three waves (Waves I, III, and IV) of the Add Health data with a subsample of Asian American youth who completed interviews during adolescence, early young adulthood, and young adulthood. A total of 1,418 Asian American youth (Mean age=16.11; 53.1% males) were analyzed. Constructs were measured by: 1) 7 items on the level of perception on adolescents’ parental control; 2) 6 items on adolescents’ perceived parental warmth; 3) a 9-item version of CES-D scale for depressive symptoms; and 4) four items on self-esteem. The study used ANOVA, chi-square tests, linear regression, and multi-group structural equation modeling (MGSEM) for data analyses.

Results: Results indicated that significant Asian American subgroup differences were found in the prevalence of parental control (F=3.88, p<0.01) and warmth (F=4.73, p<0.01). AA1 group were more likely to experience lower parental control and higher parental warmth compared to other Asian groups, while AA2 and AA4 groups reported that they experienced relatively higher parental control as well as higher parental warmth. In terms of MGSEM results, a good model fit for the global fit indices for the proposed model was observed (χ²_(df=40)=44.607, p>0.05; RMSEA=0.019; CFI=0.995 ; SRMR= 0.019) and the focused fit indices were also good. There was the significant group difference in the path coefficient from parental warmth to adolescent self-esteem among four Asian American subgroups (AA1=0.47, p<0.001; AA2=0.42, p<0.001; AA3=0.19, p<0.01; AA4=0.23, p<0.001). Additionally, self-esteem was negatively associated with depressive symptoms in both Wave 1 and Wave 2, respectively for four Asian American subgroups. Further, parental control increased the risk of depressive symptoms for AA4, while parental warmth reduced the risk of depressive symptoms for both AA1 and AA4 subgroups.

Conclusions and Implications: This study implies that Asian Americans are not homogeneous and that nativity and language spoken at home, indicators of proxy acculturation, can play crucial roles to explain the complex dynamics of parenting styles and adolescent mental health disparities. Further studies focusing on the lifelong effects of parenting warmth and control on Asian American youth’s development and well-being should be investigated. Findings can be used by social work practitioners in developing and implementing interventions to promote youth self-esteem and mental well-being, with the consideration of implementing ethnic-specific mechanisms.