Parental Worry, Self-Efficacy, and Parenting Behaviors when Raising Adolescents with Depression: A Mixed-Method Daily Diary Study

Abstract Adolescent depression and related problems, such as social withdrawal and school drop-out, also impact parents of adolescents with depression. This study aimed to obtain more insight into the experience of parents raising an adolescent with depression by investigating 1) the interrelation between parental worry, self-efficacy, and parenting behaviors (i.e., warmth and criticism) using network analyses, and 2) the reasons for parental worry and self-efficacy using thematic analyses. Fourteen Dutch-speaking parents (eight mothers, six fathers; M age = 50.64 , SD age = 3.39) participating in the Dutch parenting intervention Samen Sterk were asked daily about parental worry, self-efficacy, warmth, and criticism towards their child during the eight-week intervention. First, consistent with previous network findings, parental worry was positively correlated with parental criticism, while parental self-efficacy was positively correlated with parental warmth and negatively correlated with parental criticism. Second, adolescent behavior, adolescent well-being, family interaction, and parenting behavior were reported most frequently as reasons for parental worry and self-efficacy. Parents within a family reported different reasons, indicating within-family variation. The combination of quantitative and qualitative information provides three insights into the experiences of parents of adolescents with depression during a parent intervention: relations between, reasons for, and changes over time of parental worry and self-efficacy. This study shows that there is a need for specialized care for parents of adolescents with depression that focuses on the adolescent-parent interaction and guidance on managing adolescent negative affect and behaviors.