Self‐Compassion and Psychological Resilience Serially Mediate the Relationship Between Parent–Adolescent Cohesion and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents
Abstract
Despite the well‐documented buffering effect of parent–adolescent cohesion on depressive symptoms, relatively little is known about the potential mediating roles of self‐compassion and psychological resilience in this relationship. This present study examined a serial mediation model in which self‐compassion and psychological resilience sequentially account for the association between parent–child cohesion and depressive symptoms among Chinese adolescents. A sample of 389 adolescents ( M age = 14.41 years, SD = 1.68; 53% male) provided self‐report data on parent–adolescent cohesion, self‐compassion, psychological resilience and depressive symptoms during May and June 2022 in China. Results revealed that parent–adolescent cohesion was directly and negatively associated with depressive symptoms. Moreover, self‐compassion and psychological resilience mediated this relationship both individually and serially (i.e., self‐compassion followed by psychological resilience). The indirect effect via self‐compassion alone accounted for 37.89% of the total effect, whereas the effects via resilience alone and via the serial pathway accounted for 6.50% and 6.86%, respectively. These findings highlight the important mediating roles of self‐compassion and resilience in explaining how parent–adolescent cohesion is associated with reduced depressive symptoms, offering valuable insights for interventions aimed at adolescent depression.