When talking promotes emotional well-being. Parent-adolescent communication quality as a predictor for adolescent mental health

Parent-adolescent communication quality has been discussed as a predictor of adolescent mental health in both clinical and population-based studies. The aim of this article was to test whether parent-adolescent communication quality predicted changes in general adolescent mental health and somatic complaints as well as depressive symptoms two years after baseline in a population sample. Longitudinal data from parent-adolescent dyads (n = 289) was obtained and analyzed in a mixed linear model. In the prespecified model, parent-adolescent communication quality was a predictor for improvement in general adolescent mental health but not for change in so-matic complaints and depressive symptoms. Low parent-adolescent communication quality may be a risk factor for adolescent mental health. Sensitivity analyses suggest an indirect effect on somatic complaints and depressive symptoms. However, only one parent and one child were included so that the effects of other family members may remain undetermined, and data were obtained from an online access panel and may be subject to selection bias. The study shows that there is a longitudinal association between parent-adolescent communication quality and adoles-cent mental health. Future research should consider mediators and focus on clinical samples. Support for this research was granted by Heidehof foundation, grant number: 59125 notReviewed other