Background: The relationship between the parent–child relationship and adolescent depression is much discussed, but still not fully understood. Based on ecological systems theory, this study examined the potential mediating role of psychological resilience and the moderating role of school climate between the association of parent–child relationship and adolescent depression. Methods: This study employed a three-wave longitudinal design with six months between each time point, involving 549 elementary and middle school students in southeastern China (50.82% males; mean age at Time 1 = 11.43). Measurements included the parent–child relationship (T1), psychological resilience (T2), school climate (T3), depression (T1 and T3), and demographic information. Results: The moderated mediation model demonstrated that after controlling for baseline adolescent depression (T1), the parent–child relationship (T1) was longitudinally and negatively associated with adolescent depression (T3) through the mediating effect of psychological resilience (T2). Additionally, the analysis revealed that a positive school climate moderated this mediation by mitigating the adverse impact of low psychological resilience on adolescent depression, thus reducing the indirect effect of the parent–child relationship on adolescent depression. Conclusions: Our findings offer a nuanced understanding of the underlying mechanisms linking parent–child relationship to adolescent depression among Chinese adolescents. Theoretical contributions and practical applications of these findings are further elaborated.

Academic procrastination is a prevalent issue among children, often linked to poorer developmental outcomes. Prior research has uncovered cognitive, motivational, and dispositional antecedents of procrastination, yet its emotional correlates remain underexplored. Given the central role parenting plays in children’s emotional development, examining the emotional pathways through which parenting influences academic procrastination may deepen the understanding of emotional processes underlying academic development. Grounded in the Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions, the present study examined the extent to which emotional resilience and school emotional engagement mediate, both individually and sequentially, the relationship between perceived positive parenting styles and academic procrastination in children. Drawing on three waves of data, this study employed structural equation modeling to assess a chain mediation model. The sample comprised 728 primary school students (Mage = 9.84, SD = 0.77, 49.22% female, range = 8 to 12 years) from Guangzhou, China. Participants completed the assessment at three time points (i.e., November 2021, May 2022, May 2023). The results reveal that perceived positive parenting styles significantly predict lower levels of academic procrastination. Both emotional resilience and school emotional engagement independently mediate the relationship between positive parenting style and academic procrastination. Moreover, this relationship is sequentially mediated by emotional resilience and school emotional engagement. While the mediation effect sizes were relatively small, the study identifies the emotional mechanism through which the perceived positive parenting influences children’s academic procrastination. The preliminary findings contribute to a richer understanding of the emotional underpinnings of academic procrastination and propose potential directions for future research and intervention.

As a striking topic in adolescent career development, ambivalence in career decision-making has been proven to be multifaceted in previous studies. Nevertheless, they mainly focused on late adolescence and did not illustrate the transition pattern of subgroups. Rooted in the social-cognitive theory of career self-management, this two-wave longitudinal study (6-month time interval) intended to shed light on the transition patterns of career ambivalence and whether career decision-making self-efficacy and adolescent-parent career congruence act as predictors, with a sample of 941 Chinese early adolescents (44.9 % females, M_age = 12.40, SD_age = 1.50). Results identified four quantitative profiles at each wave, characterized by low, moderate, high, and hyper-high ambivalence, respectively. Latent transition analysis indicated that adolescents in distinct profiles both maintained and transitioned between subgroups over time. Furthermore, career decision-making self-efficacy prevented the low subgroup from transiting to the hyper-high subgroup, whereas adolescent-parent career congruence did not play a significant role. This study underscores the protective roles of career decision-making self-efficacy in the personalized intervention for career ambivalence among early adolescents.

Maternal and paternal attachment may relate differently to adolescent depressive symptoms, but the potential contribution of oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to these associations remains unclear. This six-month longitudinal study included 746 seventh- and tenth-grade students (50.7% female) from Guangzhou, China. Parent-child attachment and saliva samples for genotyping were collected at baseline, and depressive symptoms were assessed at follow-up using the CES-D-10. Overall, 48.8% of adolescents screened positive for depressive symptoms. Compared with adolescents below the cutoff, those who screened positive reported lower parental trust/communication and higher alienation (all p < 0.01). In adjusted linear regression models, father-child trust/communication was negatively associated with subsequent depressive symptoms (β = −0.26, p < 0.01), whereas mother-child alienation was positively associated with subsequent depressive symptoms (β = 0.15, p = 0.02). Exploratory moderation analyses showed a nominal rs2254295 × mother-child alienation interaction before correction (β = −0.07, p = 0.046), but this effect did not survive FDR correction. Father-child trust/communication and mother-child alienation showed distinct associations with adolescent depressive symptoms. The possible moderating role of OXTR rs2254295 should be regarded as preliminary and requires replication in larger independent samples.