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Emerging adults (EAs) are at high risk for mental health challenges and frequently reach out to their parents for support. Yet little is known about how parents help emerging adults manage and cope with daily stressors and which strategies help and which hinder EA mental health. In this cross‐sectional pilot study of students at a 2‐ and 4‐year college (ages 18–25, N = 680, mean age = 19.0), we extend models of dyadic coping from intimate relationships to the parent‐emerging adult relationship and test whether six specific parent strategies to help emerging adults manage stress are associated with EA mental health. Emerging adults with parents who provided problem and emotion‐focused supportive dyadic coping, delegated dyadic coping, and common/joint dyadic coping reported fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression, as well as higher levels of psychological well‐being. In contrast, college‐attending emerging adults who reported higher levels of parent‐provided negative dyadic coping reported higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms and lower psychological well‐being. Parent‐emerging adult dyadic coping is a fruitful area for future research and intervention development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies have found that parents’ perceptions of control over their lives and their social support may both be important for parenting behaviors. Yet, few studies have examined their unique and interacting influence on parenting behaviors during early adolescence. This longitudinal study of rural parents in two‐parent families (N = 636) investigated (a) whether perceived control and social support when their youth were in sixth grade were independently or interactively associated with changes in parenting behaviors (discipline, standard setting) and parent–child warmth and hostility 6 months later and (b) if these linkages differed by parent gender. We also investigated the interactive links between perceived control, social support, and parenting. Specifically, we tested if parents’ perceived control moderated the linkages between social support and parenting and if these linkages differed by parent gender. Greater perceived control predicted more increases in parents’ consistent discipline and standard setting, whereas greater social support predicted increases in parent–child warmth and decreases in parent–child hostility. Parental perceived control moderated the effect of social support on parental warmth: For mothers only, social support was significantly linked to parent–child warmth only when mothers had low (but not high) perceived self‐control. The discussion focuses on reasons why perceived control and social support may have associations with different aspects of parenting and why these might differ for mothers and fathers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stepfamily literature is replete with between‐group analyses by which youth residing in stepfamilies are compared to youth in other family structures across indicators of adjustment and well‐being. Few longitudinal studies examine variation in stepfamily functioning to identify factors that promote the positive adjustment of stepchildren over time. Using a longitudinal sample of 191 stepchildren (56% female, mean age = 11.3 years), the current study examines the association between the relationship quality of three central stepfamily dyads (stepparent–child, parent–child, and stepcouple) and children's internalizing and externalizing problems concurrently and over time. Results from path analyses indicate that higher levels of parent–child affective quality are associated with lower levels of children's concurrent internalizing and externalizing problems at Wave 1. Higher levels of stepparent–child affective quality are associated with decreases in children's internalizing and externalizing problems at Wave 2 (6 months beyond baseline), even after controlling for children's internalizing and externalizing problems at Wave 1 and other covariates. The stepcouple relationship was not directly linked to youth outcomes. Our findings provide implications for future research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]