The Relationship Between Parent-Adolescent Communication and Depressive Symptoms: The Roles of School Life Experience, Learning Difficulties and Confidence in the Future

Figures & data

Figure 1 Mediation model between parent-adolescent communication and depressive symptoms (***p < 0.001).

Table 1 The General Characteristics of Chinese Adolescents at Baseline

	All	Boys	Girls	P
	n=9449	n=4937	n=4512
Age, mean (SD)	13.2 (0.7)	13.3 (0.7)	13.2 (0.6)	<0.001
Ethnicity, (%)
Han	91.5	92.0	91.0	0.087
Non-Han	8.5	8.0	9.0
Perceived current state of health, (%)
Very bad	0.6	0.8	0.4	<0.001
A little bad	3.4	3.5	3.4
General	21.2	19.7	23.0
Good	34.4	33.7	35.1
Very good	40.4	42.3	38.1
Perceived household economic status, (%)
Very difficult	1.3	1.4	1.3	0.334
A little difficult	10.2	10.9	9.4
Average	74.5	72.3	76.7
A little affluent	13.1	14.1	12.0
Very affluent	0.9	1.1	0.6
Mother’s education level, (%)
≤ junior middle school	63.4	63.4	63.5	0.848
Senior middle school or vocational school	23.1	23.5	22.6
≥ college	13.5	13.1	13.9
Father’s education level, (%)
≤ junior middle school	56.9	57.6	56.1	0.078
Senior middle school or vocational schools	26.9	27.0	26.9
≥ college	16.2	15.5	17.0
Whether mother and father get along well with each other, (%)
Yes	84.6	84.0	85.2	0.097
No	15.4	16.0	14.8
Parent-adolescent communication, mean (SD)	16.5 (4.0)	16.3 (4.0)	16.8 (3.9)	<0.001
Mother-adolescent communication, mean (SD)	8.7 (2.3)	8.4 (2.2)	9.0 (2.2)	<0.001
Father-adolescent communication, mean (SD)	7.8 (2.3)	7.8 (2.3)	7.7 (2.3)	0.124
School-life experiences, mean (SD)	28.7 (4.3)	28.1 (4.4)	39.2 (4.1)	<0.001
Learning difficulties, mean (SD)	7.3 (2.0)	7.6 (2.0)	7.1 (1.9)	<0.001
Confidence in the future, mean (SD)	3.3 (0.7)	3.3 (0.7)	3.3 (0.7)	0.412
Depressive symptoms, mean (SD)	8.1 (3.2)	8.0 (3.3)	8.2 (3.1)	0.007

Notes: Data were from China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) database. Chi-squared tests, Wilcoxon’s rank-sum test and two independent samples t-test were used to compare the differences in baseline characteristics between boys and girls.

Abbreviation: SD, standard deviation.

Table 2 The Differences in Levels of Factors Across Quartiles of Depressive Symptoms at Baseline

Factors	All (n=9449)					Boys (n=4937)					Girls (n=4512)
	Q1:<6	Q2: 6-<8	Q3: 8-<10	Q4: ≥10	P	Q1:<6	Q2: 6-<8	Q3: 8-<10	Q4: ≥10	P	Q1: <6	Q2: 6-<8	Q3: 8-<10	Q4: ≥10	P
Parent-adolescent communication	17.47 (4.18)	16.90 (3.90)	16.27 (3.72)	15.65 (3.94)	<0.001	17.17 (4.29)	16.77 (3.95)	15.75 (3.68)	15.52 (3.92)	<0.001	17.88 (3.98)	17.02 (3.86)	16.78 (3.68)	15.78 (3.95)	<0.001
Mother-adolescent communication	9.17 (2.28)	8.93 (2.21)	8.56 (2.12)	8.21 (2.30)	<0.001	8.82 (2.32)	8.73 (2.20)	8.16 (2.07)	8.00 (2.24)	<0.001	9.67 (2.13)	9.13 (2.20)	8.96 (2.10)	8.43 (2.33)	<0.001
Father-adolescent communication	8.25 (2.45)	7.89 (2.26)	7.65 (2.19)	7.33 (2.30)	<0.001	8.28 (2.45)	7.95 (2.26)	7.56 (2.15)	7.41 (2.32)	<0.001	8.22 (2.45)	7.83 (2.26)	7.74 (2.23)	7.26 (2.28)	<0.001
School-life experiences	30.48 (4.05)	29.54 (3.96)	28.39 (3.92)	26.74 (4.33)	<0.001	29.90 (4.32)	28.76 (4.03)	27.83 (4.02)	26.27 (4.37)	<0.001	31.29 (3.48)	30.29 (3.75)	28.98 (3.73)	27.22 (4.23)	<0.001
Learning difficulties	6.71 (2.07)	7.02 (1.89)	7.46 (1.84)	7.89 (1.90)	<0.001	6.99 (2.19)	7.30 (1.92)	7.70 (1.82)	8.15 (1.93)	<0.001	6.33 (1.83)	6.75 (1.83)	7.23 (1.83)	7.62 (1.83)	<0.001
Confidence in the future	3.55 (0.59)	3.40 (0.62)	3.29 (0.67)	3.07 (0.74)	<0.001	3.54 (0.61)	3.43 (0.61)	3.27 (0.68)	3.07 (0.77)	<0.001	3.55 (0.57)	3.38 (0.62)	3.31 (0.65)	3.08 (0.72)	<0.001

Notes: Data were from China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) database. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the difference in level of factors between quartiles of depressive symptoms.

Abbreviations: Q1, quartile 1; Q2, quartile 2; Q3, quartile 3; Q4, quartile 4.

Table 3 Effects of Mother-Adolescent Communication, Father-Adolescent Communication, School-Life Experience, Learning Difficulties, and Confidence in the Future on Depressive Symptoms by the Mixed Effects Model

Factors	All (OR, 95% CI)	P	Boys (OR, 95% CI)	P	Girls (OR, 95% CI)	P
Mother-adolescent communication
Q1 (<7)	1 (reference)	-	1 (reference)	-	1 (reference)	-
Q2 (7-<9)	0.84 (0.66, 1.09)	0.188	0.76 (0.54, 1.06)	0.105	0.96 (0.66, 1.40)	0.828
Q3 (9-<10)	1.26 (0.93, 1.70)	0.116	1.20 (0.81, 1.79)	0.360	1.33 (0.86, 2.03)	0.196
Q4 (≥10)	1.16 (0.88, 1.52)	0.298	1.24 (0.86, 1.81)	0.249	1.07 (0.72, 1.60)	0.736
Father-adolescent communication
Q1 (<6, reference)	1 (reference)	-	1 (reference)	-	1 (reference)	-
Q2 (6-<8)	0.82 (0.65, 1.03)	0.086	0.79 (0.57, 1.09)	0.155	0.86 (0.62, 1.19)	0.351
Q3 (8-<9)	0.59 (0.45, 0.77)	<0.001	0.59 (0.40, 0.85)	0.005	0.62 (0.43, 0.90)	0.012
Q4 (≥9)	0.78 (0.61, 0.90)	0.045	0.85 (0.60, 1.20)	0.356	0.71 (0.50, 1.01)	0.053
School-life experiences
Q1 (<26, reference):	1 (reference)	-	1 (reference)	-	1 (reference)	-
Q2 (26-<29)	0.49 (0.40, 0.61)	<0.001	0.60 (0.45, 0.80)	0.001	0.39 (0.28, 0.54)	<0.001
Q3 (29-<32)	0.34 (0.27, 0.43)	<0.001	0.38 (0.28, 0.52)	<0.001	0.31 (0.22, 0.44)	<0.001
Q4 (≥32)	0.27 (0.21, 0.35)	<0.001	0.29 (0.20, 0.41)	<0.001	0.26 (0.18, 0.37)	<0.001
Learning difficulties
Q1 (<6, reference)	1 (reference)	-	1 (reference)	-	1 (reference)	-
Q2 (6-<7)	0.95 (0.71, 1.26)	0.716	0.96 (0.64, 1.45)	0.840	0.89 (0.60, 1.32)	0.555
Q3 (7-<9)	1.05 (0.81, 1.36)	0.699	0.98 (0.68, 1.43)	0.929	1.07 (0.75, 1.52)	0.723
Q4 (≥9)	1.43 (1.10, 1.88)	0.010	1.51 (1.10, 2.21)	0.037	1.27 (0.87, 1.87)	0.221
Confidence in the future
“No confidence at all” or “less confident”	1 (reference)	-	1 (reference)	-	1 (reference)	-
Quite confident	0.39 (0.31, 0.50)	<0.001	0.44 (0.32, 0.63)	<0.001	0.36 (0.26, 0.50)	<0.001
Very confident	0.30 (0.23, 0.40)	<0.001	0.34 (0.23, 0.49)	<0.001	0.27 (0.19, 0.40)	<0.001

Notes: Data were from China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) database. The model for all students was adjusted for gender, ethnicity, household economic status, mother’s education level, father’s education level and whether mother and father get along well with each other. In gender-stratified analyses, the models were adjusted for the same covariates except gender.

Abbreviations: OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; Q1, quartile 1; Q2, quartile 2; Q3, quartile 3; Q4, quartile 4.

Table 4 The Mediation Effect Sizes of School-Life Experiences, Learning Difficulties and Confidence in the Future on the Relationship Between Parent-Adolescent Communication and Depressive Symptoms

Effect	Path	All			Proportion	Boys			Proportion	Girls			Proportion
		Effect Size	95% CI	P		Effect Size	95% CI	P		Effect Size	95% CI	P
Model 1
Total effect		−0.065	(−0.085, −0.045)	<0.001		−0.056	(−0.086, −0.025)	<0.001		−0.076	(−0.103, −0.047)	<0.001
Mediation effect	Parents-adolescent communication → School-life experiences → Depressive symptoms	−0.055	(−0.062, −0.047)	<0.001	84.62%	−0.055	(−0.066, −0.045)	<0.001	98.21%	−0.056	(−0.068, −0.046)	<0.001	73.68%
Total effect		−0.022	(−0.043, −0.001)	0.034		−0.010	(−0.040, 0.020)	0.517		−0.038	(−0.066, −0.009)	0.010
Mediation effect	Parents-adolescent communication →Learning difficulties → Depressive symptoms	−0.012	(−0.016, −0.008)	<0.001	54.55%	−0.008	(−0.015, −0.002)	0.012	-	−0.017	(−0.024. −0.012)	<0.001	44.74%
Total effect		−0.025	(−0.045, −0.003)	0.016		−0.016	(−0.045, 0.014)	0.279		−0.036	(−0.065, −0.007)	0.015
Mediation effect	Parents-adolescent communication→Confidence in the future→Depressive symptoms	−0.015	(−0.020, −0.011)	<0.001	60.00%	−0.015	(−0.022, −0.008)	<0.001	-	−0.016	(−0.023, −0.009)	<0.001	44.44%
Model 2
Total effect		−0.048	(−0.091, −0.003)	0.031		−0.024	(−0.087, −0.043)	0.482		−0.072	(−0.127, −0.013)	0.014
Mediation effect	Mother-adolescent communication → School-life experiences → Depressive symptoms	−0.063	(−0.076, −0.050)	<0.001	131.25%	−0.055	(−0.074, −0.036)	<0.001	-	−0.069	(−0.088, −0.054)	<0.001	95.83%
Total effect		0.001	(−0.039, 0.045)	0.965		0.023	(−0.037, 0.087)	0.465		−0.025	(−0.079, 0.031)	0.375
Mediation effect	Mother-adolescent communication → Learning difficulties → Depressive symptoms	−0.014	(−0.020, −0.009)	<0.001	-	−0.008	(−0.016, −0.002)	0.021	-	−0.023	(−0.033, −0.015)	<0.001	-
Total effect		−0.001	(−0.043, 0.043)	0.946		0.015	(−0.047, 0.080)	0.641		−0.019	(−0.074, 0.038)	0.519
Mediation effect	Mother-adolescent communication→ Confidence in the future→ Depressive symptoms	−0.016	(−0.023, −0.011)	<0.001	-	−0.016	(−0.027, −0.008)	<0.001	-	−0.016	(−0.026, −0.009)	<0.001	-
Model 3
Total effect		−0.083	(−0.129, −0.039)	<0.001		−0.091	(−0.168, −0.023)	0.012		−0.081	(−0.141, −0.023)	0.007
Mediation effect	Father-adolescent communication → School-life experiences → Depressive symptoms	−0.047	(−0.061, −0.036)	<0.001	56.63%	−0.054	(−0.075, −0.036)	<0.001	59.34%	−0.042	(−0.060, −0.027)	<0.001	51.85%
Total effect		−0.046	(−0.089, −0.002)	0.037		−0.045	(−0.116, 0.024)	0.199		−0.051	(−0.108, 0.005)	0.078
Mediation effect	Father-adolescent communication→ Learning difficulties → Depressive symptoms	−0.010	(−0.016, −0.006)	<0.001	21.74%	−0.008	(−0.017, −0.002)	0.023	-	−0.012	(−0.020, −0.006)	0.002	-
Total effect		−0.050	(−0.092, −0.004)	0.024		−0.050	(−0.123, 0.019)	0.154		−0.054	(−0.112, 0.002)	0.060
Mediation effect	Father-adolescent communication→ Confidence in the future→ Depressive symptoms	−0.014	(−0.020, −0.009)	<0.001	28.00%	−0.013	(−0.022, −0.007)	0.001	-	−0.015	(−0.024, −0.008)	<0.001	-

Notes: Data were from China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) database. The model for all students was adjusted for gender, ethnicity, household economic status, mother’s education level, father’s education level and whether mother and father get along well with each other. In gender-stratified analyses, the models were adjusted for the same covariates except gender. Proportion: Mediation effect/ Total effect. Percentage of total indirect effects attributable to specific mediators, which add to more than 100%, if specific indirect effects were in opposite directions.

Abbreviation: CI, confidence interval.