Transactional Associations Between Parent and Late Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Moderating Role of Avoidant Coping

Extensive research has demonstrated the transactional nature of parent-child psychopathology, with limited studies examining these effects during late adolescence and none, to our knowledge, longitudinally during the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study examined the cross-lagged effects of parent and adolescent internalizing symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic and the moderating role of avoidant coping. A sample of 291 adolescents (Age (mean) = 18.27; 53% female; 61% White) and their parents rated their own anxiety and depressive symptoms and coping during the first two months following stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parent internalizing symptoms at the first assessment predicted adolescent internalizing symptoms at the second assessment. Adolescent avoidant coping style moderated this effect of parent internalizing symptoms on adolescent internalizing symptoms in the subsequent month, such that parent internalizing symptoms predicted child internalizing symptoms only among adolescents with moderate to high rates of avoidant coping. Follow-up analyses indicated different patterns when examining depressive and anxiety symptoms separately. The results highlight complex family dynamics between adolescents and their parents and begin to differentiate how individual characteristics impact the response to a significant life event such as the COVID-19 pandemic.