Prospective associations between parental warmth and knowledge in late adolescence and depression and anxiety symptoms in young adulthood: a Swedish cohort study

Abstract Background Parenting practices, such as emotional support and warmth, are key determinants of adolescent mental health, whereas the role of parental knowledge is less well understood. Parental warmth is thought to foster openness and disclosure, raising the question of whether parental knowledge independently predicts mental health outcomes or primarily reflects the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship. The present study used prospective data to test whether parental knowledge in late adolescence contributes independently to depression and anxiety symptoms in young adulthood after accounting for parental warmth and relevant covariates. Methods Data from two waves of the national Swedish cohort study Futura01 were used ( n = 2,697). Parental warmth and parental knowledge were measured at age 18, each using two items. Depression and anxiety symptoms were measured at age 21 with the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4). Covariates included participant sex, parental education, immigration background, living arrangements at age 18, and indicators of mental health problems at age 18. Linear probability models were performed. Results In unadjusted analyses, higher parental warmth and parental knowledge during late adolescence were both associated with a lower probability of reporting depressive and anxiety symptoms in young adulthood. However, when mutually adjusting for parental warmth and parental knowledge, the effect of parental knowledge was no longer statistically significant, indicating that its association with mental health outcomes was confounded by parental warmth. In contrast, parental warmth remained significantly associated with lower probabilities of both depression and anxiety symptoms, even after accounting for parental knowledge, sociodemographic characteristics, and earlier mental health problems. There were no significant interactions between parental warmth and parental knowledge, and participant sex did not moderate the associations. Conclusion This study highlights the protective role of parental warmth during late adolescence for depression and anxiety symptoms in young adulthood, with warmth showing a consistent association with lower probabilities of these outcomes. However, parental knowledge did not demonstrate an independent effect on mental health after accounting for warmth and covariates. The findings underscore the importance of fostering warm, supportive parent–adolescent relationships during late adolescence, as these relationships appear to have lasting benefits into young adulthood.