Tell me what you think about: Does parental solicitation weaken the links between pubertal timing and depressive symptoms?

Off-time pubertal timing has been linked to an increased risk of adolescent depressive symptoms, but the mechanisms underlying these associations are not well understood, particularly in a Chinese context. This three-wave longitudinal study investigated whether the relations between pubertal timing and depressive symptoms were through sadness rumination, and conditional on parental solicitation, for both Chinese girls and boys. Surveys were administered to adolescents and their parents across three measurement occasions, one year apart. Nine-hundred and fifty Chinese adolescents (56.63% boys; Mage = 13.18, SD = 0.66 at baseline) reported their depressive symptoms and sadness rumination, and one of their parents (61.70% mothers) reported their children’s pubertal timing and parental solicitation. Results indicated that early pubertal timing at baseline would increase girls’ (but not boys’) depressive symptoms two years later via elevated sadness rumination. Furthermore, it was found that when parental solicitation was higher, this indirect effect was no longer significant. These findings suggest that early maturation is a potential risk factor for adolescent girls’ depressive symptoms, while high parental solicitation appears to buffer this pubertal risk through attenuating sadness rumination. Thus, early maturing girls would benefit from developing healthier cognitive strategies, parental initiative communications with them, or adequate sex education.