Relationship Between Parental Psychological Control and Depression Among Middle School Students: A Moderated Mediation Model

Objective: To explore the relationship between parental psychological control and depression among middle school students and its underlying mechanism. Methods: Parental Psychological Control Scale, Acceptance and Action Questionnaire, Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale, and Academic Self-efficiency Scale were used to conduct a cross-sectional survey on 560 middle school students. Results: (1) Parental psychological control significantly positively predicted depression in middle school students; (2) Parental psychological control influences depression through mediating experiential avoidance; (3) Academic self-efficiency moderated the direct path and the latter half of the path of the mediation model, which was specifically shown as a gradual decrease in the negative effects of parental psychological control and experiential avoidance on depression in middle school students with the increasing academic self-efficiency. Conclusion: There is a moderated effect between parental psychological control and depression among middle school students. Besides, the mediating effect of experiential avoidance is moderated by academic self-efficiency.