Examining the longitudinal association of parental attachment with self-control among adolescents: The mediating role of self-concept clarity

Qingqing Li, Mingjia Liu and Zhenrong Fu

Children and Youth Services Review, 2025, vol. 179, issue C

Abstract: Although research has indicated that parental attachment is closely related to self-control, the underlying psychological mechanism remains unclear. Self-concept clarity, the extent to which various aspects of the self are clearly and confidently defined, may facilitate self-control and could be promoted by high-quality parental attachment. This study collected two waves of questionnaire data at a six-month interval and investigated the longitudinal association of parent-adolescent attachment with self-control, further revealing the mediating role of self-concept clarity in a large sample of 2,539 Chinese adolescents (Mage = 17.27, SD = 0.85; 1,399 girls). Correlation analysis showed that greater attachment security with parents was associated with higher self-concept clarity and self-control. Cross-lagged path analysis demonstrated reciprocal relationships between secure attachment (to both mother and father) and self-control over time. Moreover, cross-lagged mediation models revealed that self-concept clarity played a mediating role in the relationship between parental attachment and self-control. Overall, the present findings indicate that parent-adolescent attachment and self-control mutually influence each other over time, with self-concept clarity partly explaining this reciprocal relationship. These findings advance a better understanding of the reciprocal relationship between parent-adolescent interactions and the development of self-regulation in adolescence, and highlight the importance of family education for fostering parent-adolescent attachment relationships and interventions for improving self-concept clarity in promoting adolescents’ self-control.

Keywords: Parental attachment; Self-control; Self-concept clarity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740925004979
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:179:y:2025:i:c:s0190740925004979

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2025.108614

Access Statistics for this article

Children and Youth Services Review is currently edited by Duncan Lindsey

More articles in Children and Youth Services Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().