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Cultural tensions in immigrant households: The relationships among parent-child acculturative conflict, parental criticism, and depressive symptoms in Korean adolescents

Among immigrant adolescents, the emergence of depressive symptoms may be influenced by their experiences as immigrants (Cleary et al., 2018). Parent-adolescent acculturative conflicts have been linked to depressive symptoms (Juang et al., 2018). Other findings link parental criticism to depressive symptoms (Castro & Rice, 2003). Our study examined the relationships among parent-adolescent acculturative conflict, parental criticism, and depressive symptoms among Korean immigrant adolescents. Mediation analyses indicated maternal criticism mediated the relationship between mother-adolescent acculturative conflict and depressive symptoms (β = 3.60, 95% CI [.62, 6.00]). Results suggest that parent-adolescent acculturative conflict may influence maternal criticism, which then impacts depressive symptoms.