Parental Cognitions and Children's Wellbeing

The Role of Parental Cognitions in Predicting Wellbeing in Adolescence

The current study aims to address the research limitations in previous studies by adopting a longitudinal design to investigate the associations between parental cognitions (parental expectations, parental beliefs, and parental attributional styles) and adolescents' wellbeing, resilience, and coping strategies across an extended period. Two main research questions were posed: 1) What are the associations between parental cognition factors (parental attribution, parental expectations, and parental beliefs and adolescents' outcomes (wellbeing, resilience, and stress-coping)? 2) Which parental cognition factor has the highest probability in predicting the changes of adolescents' wellbeing, resilience, and coping strategies over time? To answer these research questions, bayesian regression analysis was used to identify the best fitting model of adolescents' wellbeing outcomes and to discern the risk and protective roles of parental cognition factors within the model. Bayesian regression approach also enables the assignment of probabilities to each parental cognition factor, quantifying their credibly in relation to adolescents' wellbeing outcomes.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Adolescent Development

Detailed Description

93 parents who has an adolescent aged between 11 to 16 years old were recruited. Only 65 of them had their adolescents to agree to sign up. This result in a 65 dyads of parents and adolescents in total. Parents and adolescents completed the measures on Qualtrics online survey site, respectively. After completion, researcher contacted parents to arrange a zoom call/phone call with their adolescents to complete measures on wellbeing and perceived stress. Among 93 parents who signed up the research, only 65 of their adolescents managed to complete both the online questionnaire and the call with the researcher at baseline. Six months after baseline, only adolescents were asked to repeat the above procedures as the follow-up. 37 adolescents completed the follow-up procedure, which makes this study sample ended up with 37 dyads of parents and adolescents. The primary objective of this observational study is to determine which parental factor, among the three primary parental cognition schemas (parental expectations, parental beliefs, and parental attributional styles), exhibits consistent effects on predicting the changes of adolescents' wellbeing over time.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 90

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United Kingdom
  • Edinburgh, United Kingdom, EH16 4TJ
    • The University of Edinburgh

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

93 parents who has an adolescent aged between 11 to 16 years old were recruited. Only 65 of them had their adolescents to agree to sign up. This result in a 65 dyads of parents and adolescents in total. 39 of them were recruited through secondary state schools, primary state schools, and independent schools in Scotland, England, and Ireland. 15 participants were recruited through a Parent Webinar hosted by the research team. 6 participants were recruited from parenting and child organisations (Glasgow City Parents Group, Shared Parenting Scotland, Connect Scotland, Parental Minds, and the LUNA Project). 5 participants were recruited through research social account on Facebook and Twitter.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Criteria for participation were parents and their adolescents aged 11 to 16 years old who have no neurodevelopmental conditions reported by parents (specifically to developmental disorders that may include learning difficulties, such as ASD, ADHD, and intellectual disability).

Exclusion Criteria:

• Adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders, adolescents aged younger than 11 years old or older than 16 years old, and adolescents and parents who are not fluent in English will also be excluded as the measurements in this study are written in English.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Wellbeing	Adolescents' wellbeing (quality of life) measured by KIDCSREEN-27	6 months
Resilience	Adolescents' trait resilience measured by Conner Davidson Resilience Scale	6 months
Coping Styles	Adolescents' coping styles measured by Brief Coping Scale	6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Edinburgh
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Hungtzu Tai, University of Edinburgh

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 31, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 15, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): November 15, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 28, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 28, 2023
• First Posted (Estimated): December 7, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): December 7, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 28, 2023
• Last Verified: November 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: coping; resilience; wellbeing; parental cognitions
• Other Study ID Numbers: AC21089