Longitudinal predictions of internalizing and externalizing problems from parental psychological control through emotion regulation difficulties in Chinese Americans during the transition from adolescence to early adulthood.

OBJECTIVES

A robust literature documents parents' influence on children's and adolescents' emotion regulation, but far fewer studies have examined whether parental socialization and adolescent emotion regulation continue to have influence on adjustment outcomes in emerging or early adulthood particularly among bicultural youth. This study addresses this gap by tracing these developmental pathways into a critical transitional period, thereby clarifying the continuity of emotion regulation processes across adolescence and early adulthood.

METHOD: In this longitudinal study, we examined whether parental psychological control during adolescence indirectly predicts internalizing and externalizing problems in early adulthood through adolescents' emotion regulation difficulties in 107 Chinese American youth (64 females, 43 males; Mage 16 years, SD 1.4) and their first-generation immigrant parents.

RESULTS

Direct associations emerged between parental psychological control and adolescent emotion dysregulation and between emotion dysregulation and externalizing problems but not internalizing problems. Emotion dysregulation also mediated the link between psychological control and externalizing problems but not internalizing problems.

CONCLUSION

Results underscore emotion regulation as a central mechanism linking youths' internalization of emotion-related parenting practices to their later adjustment in early adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).