Maternal Distress and Adolescent Mental Health in Poor Chinese Single-Mother Families: Filial Responsibilities—Risks or Buffers?

Single motherhood and poverty have a significant, negative impact on mothers and their children. When their mothers experience maternal distress, adolescent children have to take up more instrumental and emotional filial responsibilities to comfort their mother and adapt to related changes. Based on 325 mother–child dyads of Chinese single-mother families experiencing economic disadvantage, this study examined the relationship between maternal distress and adolescent mental health problems (indexed by anxiety and depression) and the moderating roles of instrumental and emotional filial responsibilities. Results indicated that maternal distress was positively associated with anxiety and depression in adolescent children. In addition, instrumental filial responsibility intensified the associations of maternal distress with adolescent anxiety and depression. Moreover, the moderating role of emotional filial responsibility in the predictive relationship between maternal distress and adolescent anxiety was different in boys and girls. Adolescent girls with more emotional filial responsibility reported higher adolescent anxiety than did those who shouldered less emotional filial responsibility when their mother exhibited more distress, whereas the relationship between maternal distress and adolescent anxiety was stable in boys, regardless of emotional filial responsibility. In short, the present study showed that parentification was likely to occur in poor Chinese single-mother families, and adolescent children who took up a more caregiving role in the family exhibited poorer mental health. Family counselling and tangible support for single-mother families experiencing economic disadvantage are urged.