A moderated mediation model of the association between parental psychological control and internalizing problems among college students

Parental psychological control is consistently associated with internalizing problems among college students. However, less is known about the indirect role of interpersonal sensitivity in this association and whether upward social comparison on social media is related to variation across different pathways. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 1026 college students (proportion of males: 56.53%, age: 20.28 ± 1.09).

A moderated mediation model was then constructed. Parental psychological control was positively associated with stress, anxiety, and depression. Interpersonal sensitivity accounted for significant indirect associations between parental psychological control and each dimension of internalizing problems.

Upward social comparison on social media negatively moderated the association between parental psychological control and interpersonal sensitivity, as well as the associations of parental psychological control with stress and depression. In contrast, upward social comparison on social media positively moderated the association between interpersonal sensitivity and stress. These findings provide targeted intervention ideas for college students’ mental health education in the digital media era through parental psychological control.

Department of Education, Taiyuan University, Taiyuan, China School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China The authors declare no competing interests. This study was authorized by the Ethics Committee of School of Psychology, South China Normal University, which was conducted per the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethics Approval number: SCNU-PSY-2024-398.

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