Examining bidirectional associations between overprotective parenting and adolescent problem behaviors: a multiverse analysis

BACKGROUND: Research on overprotective parenting in adolescence has predominantly used cross-sectional designs, limiting attention to possible bidirectional associations between such parenting and adolescents' problem behaviors. The few longitudinal studies available have yielded mixed findings regarding the direction of effects between overprotective parenting and adolescent outcomes, which may stem from substantive and design-related choices (e.g., type of informant). The present study systematically investigated the potentially bidirectional interplay between overprotective parenting and adolescents' functioning over time using a multiverse analysis. METHODS: We used two-wave repeated-measures data with a two-year interval from the Flemish Study on Parenting, Personality, and Development (FSPPD), including 588 adolescents, both parents, and their teachers. Adolescents and their parents reported on parental overprotection. Moreover, adolescents, their parents, and teachers rated adolescents' externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors. Latent change models were estimated within a multiverse framework. RESULTS: The results provide stronger evidence that adolescents with more overprotective parents show, on average, a greater increase in problem behavior than adolescents with less overprotective parents, compared to evidence for the opposite direction of effects. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, these findings highlight the potential of a multiverse analysis and mainly support a directional effect of overprotective parenting on more problematic adolescent functioning within the two-year time interval studied.