Are Interpersonal Relationships Predictors or Outcomes of Psychological Distress in Children With Special Educational Needs.

Psychological distress is more prevalent in adolescents with special educational needs than in typically developing adolescents. Despite previous evidence and theories for the association between interpersonal relationships and psychological distress, longitudinal research is lacking to investigate the temporal association between interpersonal relationships and psychological distress. The two-wave longitudinal study aimed to investigate the reciprocal association between interpersonal relationships and psychological distress in a sample of adolescents with special educational needs. The study involved 580 high school students in the project. Students completed online inventories twice with an assessment interval of 1 year to measure adolescent-parent relationships, peer relationships, and sibling relationships, as well as psychological distress, with the assistance of teachers. The cross-lagged panel models suggested that adolescent-parent relationships and peer relationships at the first wave did not predict psychological distress at the second wave. High psychological distress at the first wave predicted poor adolescent-parent relationships and poor peer relationships at the second wave. Good sibling relationships at the first wave predicted low psychological distress at the second wave. However, psychological distress at the first wave did not predict sibling relationships at the second wave. The findings suggested that for adolescents with special educational needs, adolescent-parent relationships and peer relationships were the consequences rather than the predictors of psychological distress, and sibling relationships were the predictors rather than the consequences of psychological distress, which provided implications for theories and psychoeducational interventions for adolescents with special educational needs.