Longitudinal Relation Between Maladaptive Parenting and Deviant Peer Affiliation: Disentangling Between- and Within-Person Effects and Highlighting Sex Differences

Research identifies parental maladaptive behaviors, such as psychological control and harsh punishment, as key risks for adolescent involvement with deviant peer groups. However, bidirectional dynamics between these specific parenting practices and deviant peer affiliation at the within-person level remain underexplored, particularly regarding sex differences. Our study addresses this gap using a four-wave longitudinal design with 4,731 Chinese adolescents (44.9% girls; Mean age = 10.91, SD = 0.72), assessed biannually. The random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) was applied to disentangle between- and within-person effects. The RI-CLPM results revealed that increases in parental psychological control or harsh punishment were positively associated with subsequent increases in deviant peer affiliation. Conversely, changes in peer affiliation were not associated with later variations in maladaptive parenting. Notably, boys demonstrated greater susceptibility to the influence of harsh punishment on deviant peer involvement compared to girls. These findings underscore the critical need to differentiate within-person processes from between-person differences in this domain and advocate for sex-specific intervention strategies to enhance effectiveness and improve developmental trajectories for both sexes.