Dissertation Defence: Parent-Adolescent Dynamics and Internalizing Symptoms at Multiple Time Scales

Gizem Keskin, supervised by Dr. Jessica Lougheed, will defend their dissertation titled “Parent-Adolescent Dynamics and Internalizing Symptoms at Multiple Time Scales” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology.

An abstract for Gizem Keskin’s dissertation is included below.

Examinations are open to all members of the campus community as well as the general public. Registration is not required for in person exams.

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ABSTRACT

Adolescence is a transitional period in which the risk of internalizing symptoms –anxious and depressive symptoms– is high. Emotional processes happen in the context of social relationships and parent-adolescent relationships are a key factor to predict both parental and adolescent internalizing symptoms. To date, the literature has well-documented the between-family differences in parent-adolescent interactions and internalizing symptoms while ignoring the within-family processes of parent-adolescent interactions and internalizing symptoms at different time scales (e.g., moment-to-moment and day-to-day). In my dissertation, I examined how parent-adolescent interactions contribute to – or protect against – both short-term and long-term parental and adolescent internalizing symptoms at different time scales in three studies. The first study explored whether moment-to-moment interaction patterns in parent-adolescent conflicts explained the development of internalizing symptoms among adolescents and parents. The second study explored how daily parent-adolescent conflict and their internalizing mood (i.e., sad and anxious mood) were associated with each other. The third study examined the mediating role of parenting practices (i.e., autonomy support and psychological control) between parental psychological needs and adolescent internalizing mood in daily life. Taken together, the findings from these three studies showed that (1) momentary parent-adolescent conflict interactions are associated with their internalizing problems, (2) parent-adolescent conflicts and internalizing symptoms are likely to co-occur in everyday life, and (3) parents’ own daily psychological needs should be met first to promote adolescents’ emotional well-being through parenting practices in parent-adolescent dyads’ daily lives.