Exploring Retrospective Parenting Styles and Parent-Child Relationship Quality as Correlates of Chinese Adults’ Current Psychological Distress: Influence of Family-of-Origin?

The present study explored retrospective childhood parenting styles and retrospective childhood parent-child relationship quality as correlates of Chinese adults’ current psychological distress. An online community sample of 501 Chinese adults (aged 19-46 years, M = 28.55, SD = 5.38; 252 men) was recruited. Retrospective parenting styles and parent-child relationship quality were measured by asking participants to recall their childhood experiences (≤12 years old). With bivariate correlations, both retrospective parenting styles and parent-child relationship quality were significantly associated with adults’ current psychological distress. With multiple linear regressions, retrospective parental rejection was the only significant, positive correlate of current psychological distress (β = 0.36, p < 0.001). Gender significantly moderated the relation between retrospective parental warmth and current psychological distress (β = −0.12, p = 0.049) and the relation between retrospective parent-child relationship quality and current psychological distress (β = 0.18, p = 0.032). These findings suggest that Chinese adults’ retrospective parenting styles and relationship quality with their parents during childhood may relate to current mental health status as represented by psychological distress, highlighting the potential influence of family-of-origin.