Cross-Lagged Association Between Parenting Styles and Internalizing Problems: Untangling Sex and Grade-level Differences

Evidence suggests that the association between parenting styles and internalizing problems may vary as a function of children’s demographic characteristics. Although sex and developmental/contextual-related factors have each been examined as moderators, their joint moderating role remains largely unexplored. The present study examined whether longitudinal associations between parenting styles and internalizing problems are jointly moderated by sex and grade level, focusing on students in late elementary and early middle school. Participants were 732 predominantly White students from Cyprus (54.4% female), aged 10–15 years, recruited from urban and rural schools across three districts. Data were collected at two time points and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that associations between parenting styles and internalizing problems varied across grade levels and sex, highlighting meaningful interactive effects. Analyses that consider sex or grade level in isolation may obscure important contextual dynamics shaping links between parenting styles and internalizing problems.