[Effect of parental emotional neglect on non-suicidal self-injury behavior in adolescents: Mediating role of depressive mood].

OBJECTIVES

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) behavior is increasingly prevalent among adolescents. Parental emotional socialization plays a critical role in adolescents' emotional regulation and behavioral development. Sadness, as an affective precursor of depressive mood, may influence adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems when neglected by parents through emotion-regulation mechanisms. Adopting a triadic perspective of fathers, mothers, and adolescents, this study examined the pathways through which parental neglect of adolescents' sadness contributes to NSSI behaviors and tested the mediating role of depressive mood.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted among junior high school students and their parents in a secondary school in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province. Parental neglect of sadness was measured using the Childhood Emotional Scale; adolescent depressive mood was assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL); and NSSI behaviors were evaluated with the Adolescent Self-Injury Questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the relationships among parental neglect, maternal neglect, adolescent depressive mood, and NSSI behaviors. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the measurement model's fit.

RESULTS

A total of 374 family triads were included. Both paternal and maternal neglect significantly predicted higher levels of adolescent depressive mood, with maternal neglect showing a stronger effect (β=0.318, 95% CI 0.156 to 0.479, P=0.001) than paternal neglect (β=0.214, 95% CI 0.052 to 0.375, P=0.030). Adolescent depressive mood directly predicted NSSI behaviors (β=0.546, 95% CI 0.486 to 0.605, P<0.001). Depressive mood fully mediated the relationship between parental neglect and NSSI, with indirect effects of 0.173 for maternal neglect and 0.117 for paternal neglect.

CONCLUSIONS

Parental neglect of adolescents' sadness indirectly increases the risk of NSSI by exacerbating depressive mood, with maternal neglect showing a stronger predictive effect. The findings highlight gender-specific roles in parental emotion socialization and suggest the need for targeted interventions to enhance parental emotional responsiveness, particularly maternal emotion awareness and paternal emotional support strategies.