Co‐Development of Parenting, Self‐Confidence, and Internalizing Problems From Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood

INTRODUCTION: Despite extensive research linking parenting with adolescent adjustment, relatively little longitudinal research has examined how developmental changes in adolescents' perceptions of parenting, self-confidence, and internalizing problems are linked across the transition from adolescence to emerging adulthood. METHODS: Five-wave longitudinal data were drawn from the Korean Youth Panel Survey (N = 3188; mean age at Time 1 = 14.16 years, SD = 0.37), following participants from Grade 9 through Grade 12 and 1 year after high school graduation. Latent growth modeling and parallel process latent growth modeling were used to examine developmental trajectories and coordinated changes among perceived parenting quality, self-confidence, and internalizing problems. Gender differences were examined using multi-group analyses after establishing measurement invariance. RESULTS: Perceived parenting quality and self-confidence increased over time, whereas internalizing problems decreased. Parallel process analyses indicated that developmental changes in perceived parenting quality, self-confidence, and internalizing problems were systematically associated across time. Multi-group analyses suggested that these developmental associations were largely similar for males and females. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the co-development of perceived parenting quality, self-confidence, and internalizing problems and underscore the importance of understanding adolescent adjustment as a developmental process that unfolds across interconnected relational, self-related, and emotional domains.