Parental Demandingness Predicts Adolescents' Rumination and Depressive Symptoms in a One-year Longitudinal Study

While past research has linked parental demandingness (parents’ rules, regulations, and restrictions for their children) to depression in adolescents, the mechanism underlying this relationship has not been well understood. This study attempts to disentangle the association between parental demandingness and depression by examining the potential mediating role of rumination (a repetitive and passive focus on negative emotions and symptoms) using an objective observational measure of parenting and a two-wave longitudinal design. Participants were 125 students aged 9 to 14 (M = 12.21, SD = 1.39) from local schools in Hong Kong. Participants completed questionnaires and participated in interaction tasks with their primary caregiving parents at T1 and completed the questionnaires again at T2 (one year later). A longitudinal mediation analysis suggested that the relationship between parental demandingness and depression was mediated by rumination. This study advances the existing literature by supporting that parental demandingness influences depression among children through increasing rumination. The present findings provide insights into the future development of parenting interventions (which aim at reducing parents’ commands) in prevention programs for depression in children.