How parents relate to their children in late adolescence may matter for mental health several years later. In a study published in BMC Public Health, CHESS researcher Sara Brolin Låftman and colleagues examine the role of parental warmth and parental knowledge in relation to depression and anxiety symptoms in young adulthood.
Parenting practices, such as emotional support and warmth, are important determinants of adolescent mental health, while the role of parental knowledge is less well understood. Since parental warmth may foster openness and disclosure, the study examined whether parental knowledge independently predicted depression and anxiety symptoms in young adulthood, or whether it primarily reflected the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship.
The study used prospective data from two waves of the Swedish national cohort study Futura01. The sample included 2,697 individuals. Parental warmth and parental knowledge were measured at age 18, using two items each. Depression and anxiety symptoms were measured at age 21 with the Patient Health Questionnaire-4. The analyses also accounted for participant sex, parental education, immigration background, living arrangements at age 18 and indicators of mental health problems at age 18. Linear probability models were performed.
In unadjusted analyses, higher parental warmth and parental knowledge during late adolescence were both associated with a lower probability of reporting depression and anxiety symptoms in young adulthood. However, when parental warmth and parental knowledge were analysed together, parental knowledge was no longer statistically significant. This indicated that the association between parental knowledge and mental health outcomes was confounded by parental warmth.
By contrast, parental warmth remained significantly associated with lower probabilities of both depression and anxiety symptoms, even after accounting for parental knowledge, sociodemographic characteristics and earlier mental health problems. No significant interactions were found between parental warmth and parental knowledge, and participant sex did not moderate the associations.
The findings highlight the protective role of parental warmth during late adolescence for depression and anxiety symptoms in young adulthood. Parental knowledge did not show an independent effect after parental warmth and covariates were taken into account. The researchers conclude that fostering warm and supportive parent-adolescent relationships during late adolescence may have lasting benefits into young adulthood.
Read more: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-026-27712-7