Who plays a more crucial role in adolescent well-being: Interactions with parents or peers? An investigation of adolescents aged 10 to 18 years.

Communication with parents had significant within-person cross-lagged effects on adolescents' mental well-being, but mental well-being did not significantly predict subsequent parent-adolescent communication.

• The within-person cross-lagged effects of communication with parents on adolescents' mental well-being were significant
• The reverse direction (mental well-being predicting parent-adolescent communication) was not significant
• Analysis used a random intercepts cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) to disentangle between-person and within-person effects
• Data came from 33,824 Chinese adolescents across three data collection waves

Mental well-being had significant within-person cross-lagged effects on social interactions with peers, but peer interactions did not significantly predict subsequent mental well-being.

• The within-person cross-lagged effects of mental well-being on social interactions with friends were significant
• The reverse direction (peer social interactions predicting mental well-being) was not significant
• This pattern suggests mental well-being precedes peer interaction changes rather than peer interactions driving well-being at the within-person level

Significant correlations were found among the random intercepts of communication with parents, social interactions with peers, and mental well-being, indicating between-person associations.

• Random intercepts represent stable between-person differences across the three waves
• All three random intercepts (parent communication, peer interactions, mental well-being) were significantly correlated with each other
• The RI-CLPM framework was used to separate stable trait-like between-person variance from within-person fluctuations

Age moderated the between-person level associations, with mental well-being and peer interactions showing a U-shaped trend across adolescence.

• Local structural equation modeling (LSEM) was used to examine potential age-related moderation
• The association between mental well-being and peer interactions followed a U-shaped trend across age
• The association between mental well-being and parent-adolescent communication increased linearly across age
• Participants ranged from ages 10 to 18 years (Mage = 13.55)

The study used a large sample of Chinese adolescents across three data collection waves to examine longitudinal relationships among parent communication, peer interactions, and mental well-being.

• Sample size was 33,824 Chinese adolescents
• Age range was 10 to 18 years with a mean age of 13.55 years
• 47.43% of participants were female
• Three data collection waves were used to enable longitudinal cross-lagged analyses
• RI-CLPM was combined with LSEM to examine both temporal dynamics and age moderation