Bringing up adolescent children: A longitudinal study of parents' child-rearing stress

This study presents a longitudinal child-rearing stress model for adolescents' parents. The model depicts the indirect associations between parental antecedents (physical strain and perceived problematic child behaviour) and adolescent outcomes (emotional stability, positive outlook for the future, reported by adolescents), via adolescents' perceptions of parent-adolescent positive relationship. Empirical estimates of the model were carried out by LISREL analyses of data collected from 369 Dutch families and their 208 adolescent daughters and 161 sons, at two time-points (T1, T2) five years apart. Analyses indicated a good fit between the theoretical model and its estimates for four family dyads (mother-girl, mother-boy, father-girl, father-boy). Parents' sex differences were dependent on sex of child, and the empirical estimates explained a larger percentage of the variance of positive outlook for the future of girls than of boys. In addition, fathers' reports regarding problematic child behaviour at T1 were directly linked to girls' outcomes. Discussion focuses on the stability of child-rearing stress, the pivotal role of adolescent-parent relationship, and sex-of-parent by sex-of-adolescent-child differences.