Perceived changes in adolescent children anticipate increasing maternal stress and declining mother–child relationship quality

Abstract

The profound physical, emotional, and social changes that accompany adolescence typically coincide with increases in maternal stress and decreases in the quality of the mother–child relationship. Does one follow from the other? The present longitudinal study tested the hypothesis that perceived changes in adolescent children forecast increases in maternal stress, which contribute to deteriorating mother–child relationship quality, anticipating more perceived changes in children. Participants were 299 mothers (Mage = 40.19, SD = 5.01 years) in two-parent households, with children (152 boys and 147 girls; ages 9–13) attending public primary and middle schools in an eastern Lithuanian community. Nearly all participants were ethnic Lithuanian. Maternal reports of stress, perceived changes in children, and mother–child relationship quality (i.e., negativity and social support) were collected three times over the course of a year. Direct longitudinal associations emerged from maternal perceptions of changes in the child to heightened maternal stress, from maternal stress to deteriorating mother–child relationship quality, and from diminished relationship quality to escalating changes in children. Full-longitudinal mediation analyses confirmed each of the hypothesized indirect effects: (a) Time 1 perceived changes in the child → Time 2 maternal stress → Time 3 mother–child relationship quality, (b) Time 1 maternal stress → Time 2 mother–child relationship quality → Time 3 perceived changes in the child, and (c) Time 1 mother–child relationship quality → Time 2 perceived changes in the child → Time 3 maternal stress.