In a study of 1,822 high school students, parental emotional warmth was found to be negatively correlated with adolescent .
Parental rejection and overprotection were positively correlated with adolescent deviant peer affiliation.
Reactance significantly mediated the relationship between various parenting behaviors and deviant peer affiliation.
Reactance fully mediated the link between parental overprotection and deviant peer affiliation.
Gender significantly moderated the relationship between parental rejection and emotional warmth with deviant peer affiliation.
No moderation was observed regarding parental overprotection and deviant peer affiliation.
Simplified
Given the negative impact of on adolescent behavioral development, understanding its underlying mechanisms is essential. Drawing on social development model, theory and adolescent-limited delinquency theory, this study examined the relationship between parenting behaviors and adolescents' deviant peer affiliation, as well as the mediating role of reactance and the moderating role of gender. The research involved 1,822 high school students (M= 15.28 years, SD= 2.40) from two provinces in China. All students completed a face-to-face questionnaire administered in a computer room at their respective school. This study found that parental emotional warmth was negatively correlated with adolescent deviant peer affiliation. On the contrary, parental rejection and overprotection were positively correlated with adolescent deviant peer affiliation. Furthermore, the findings indicated that reactance significantly mediated the relationship between parental emotional warmth, rejection, overprotection, and deviant peer affiliation, with reactance fully mediating the relationship between parental overprotection and deviant peer affiliation. Finally, the gender of the adolescent was found to significantly moderate the relationship between parental rejection (β = -0.10, p =.04), emotional warmth (β = 0.16, p =.003) and deviant peer affiliation, although no moderation was observed regarding parental overprotection. These results suggest that various parenting behaviors employ complex mechanisms to influence adolescents' deviant peer affiliation, with reactance and gender differences playing pivotal roles. This study offers new insights into the mechanisms underlying adolescent deviant peer affiliation and underscores the importance of reducing deviant peer affiliation through interventions targeting reactance and parenting behaviors. age age
Key numbers
98%
Response Rate
Out of 1,856 distributed questionnaires, 1,822 valid responses were collected.
1,822 adolescents
Sample Size
Participants were high school students from two provinces in China.
71.32%
Mediation Effect of Reactance
Reactance accounted for 71.32% of the total effect of parental overprotection on .
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Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Marxism of Wuhan University and were in line with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was signed and obtained from all individual participants included in the study. For participants under the age of 16, additional informed consent was obtained from their parents or legal guardians. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
