Parental emotional neglect and depression among adolescents in China: a moderated mediation model

Emotional neglect, despite its potential and long-term impact on adolescent psychological development, has received insufficient attention due to the absence of observable behavioral indicators and the difficulty in recalling details. Particular attention was paid to emotional neglect in this study, which adds to the body of evidence supporting emotional neglect’s association with depression in the future. Based on a combination of the Diathesis-Stress Model, the Stress-Reward-Mentalizing Model of Depression, and the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Theory, this study constructed a moderated mediation model. An anonymous face-to-face survey of 646 high school students (age = 17.18 ± 0.76) in China was conducted using the questionnaire method. The results showed that (1) parental emotional neglect was a significant predictor of depressive symptoms in high school students (β = 0.40, p < 0.001); (2) resilience partially mediated the relationship between parental emotional neglect and depressive symptoms, with a mediating effect of 39.51%; and (3) peer support moderated the relationship between parental emotional neglect and resilience, so as peer support increased, the impact of parental emotional neglect on resilience increased.