Family Factors Associated with Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms: Longitudinal Findings from the ABCD Study

Family factors, such as parental symptomatology and parenting behaviors, are related to adolescent internalizing symptoms. Yet fewer studies have evaluated how family factors relate to the emergence of internalizing symptoms during the pubertal transition with large-scale longitudinal data. The present study addressed this issue using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study in adolescents who were prepubertal at baseline and had manifested puberty at 4-year follow-up (N = 2,276). Participants completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), Adult Self Report (ASR), Child Report of Parenting Behavior Inventory (CRPBI), Parental Monitoring Survey (PMQ), and Family Environment Scale (FES). Structural equation modeling revealed that higher levels of parent internalizing symptoms and parent-reported family conflict at baseline were associated with higher levels of adolescent internalizing symptoms at the 4-year follow-up. Higher baseline parental monitoring was associated with lower adolescent internalizing symptoms at the 4-year follow-up. Baseline parental acceptance and youth-reported family conflict were not related to adolescent internalizing symptoms. Adolescent sex did not moderate any associations in our models. Our results offer insights into how research, prevention, and intervention strategies can be developed to address the development of adolescent internalizing psychopathology.