Developmental Timing of Parent–Youth Intimacy as a Protective Factor for Adolescent Adjustment Problems

Parent–youth intimacy protects adolescents from adjustment problems, including weight concerns, low self-esteem, and depressive symptoms. This study aimed to identify when in development parent–youth intimacy emerges as a protective factor, how this protective effect changes in its strength across adolescence, and whether there are differences in intimacy-adjustment linkages depending on parent and youth gender. The sample was 388 predominately White American adolescents (50.8% female; ages 12–20 years, M = 15.2, SD = 1.63 at Time 1) from 202 families. Time-varying effect models revealed that associations between intimacy and adjustment problems were dynamic and differed by parent and youth gender and across adjustment problems. Father–youth intimacy was associated with fewer weight concerns across most of adolescence for girls and boys, and these effects were strongest in mid- and late adolescence, respectively. Mother–youth intimacy was associated with boys’ but not girls’ weight concerns, and only in early adolescence. Father–youth intimacy was associated with fewer depressive symptoms for boys and girls across most of adolescence, whereas mother–youth intimacy was associated with fewer depressive symptoms in mid-adolescence. However, the association between intimacy and depressive symptoms was strongest during mid-adolescence for mother– and father–youth intimacy. Finally, father–youth intimacy was associated with higher self-esteem from early through mid-adolescence for boys and girls, whereas mother–youth intimacy was associated with higher self-esteem across most of adolescence for girls and during early and late adolescence for boys.