Authors:

Ani Avedoumian

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About Paper:

Large and increasing differences in depression risk emerge in early adolescence, with girls showing greater prevalence than boys (Breslau et al., 2017). Additionally, both youth perfectionism and parental emotional overinvolvement (EOI) can differentially impact the well-being of boys and girls (e.g. Bradley et al., 2025; Chen et al., 2019). The present study addresses a gap in the literature by examining whether the association between perfectionism and depression symptoms depends on parental levels of EOI, and whether this relationship differs for boys and girls. The sample includes 269 early adolescents of predominantly ethnic minority backgrounds (M.,, = 11.6). Analyses included a moderated moderation model using the PROCESS macro in SPSS. It was hypothesized that higher perfectionism would be associated with higher depression symptoms, particularly at higher EO! levels, with girls showing greater vulnerability to the impact of EOI. As predicted, a significant three-way interaction effect was found (& = -.06, p < .05), indicating that gender moderated the moderating effect of EOI on the association between perfectionism and depression. Among girls, a significant moderation effect was found (& = -.04, p = .02) such that higher perfectionism was associated with higher depression among those with medium and low levels of parental EOI. In contrast, for boys, the moderation effect was not present (& = .02, p = .40). Girls with high parental EO! reported the highest levels of depressive symptoms, regardless of perfectionism levels. These findings emphasize the importance of considering both individual and family characteristics in early adolescent depression risk. EOI appears to alter how perfectionistic tendencies translate into depressive symptoms, but in different ways for boys and girls. Additional analyses will be conducted to further uncover the nature of these differences. Clinicians working with early adolescents may benefit from exploring and incorporating skills that help adolescents cope with cognitive and family/interpersonal processes.

Source:

DePaul University

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Co-authors:

Ani Avedoumian