Parenting practices and adolescents’ mental health: Serial mediation by parental acceptance and adolescents’ grit

This quantitative cross-sectional study assessed the serial mediation effect of perceived parental acceptance and adolescents’ grit on the relationship between effective parenting practices and adolescents’ mental health. A total of 761 school-going adolescents (468 females; aged 13–18 years) from the Klang Valley area were recruited using purposive sampling method. They completed the Perceived Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire, Short Grit Scale, Alabama Parenting Questionnaire, and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. PROCESS macro analysis revealed that the relationship between paternal and maternal effective parenting practices and adolescents’ mental health were independently mediated by both perceived parental acceptance and adolescents’ grit. This shows that effective parenting practices used by fathers and mothers help in reducing adolescents’ mental health issues as effective parenting is perceived as a form of acceptance and is able to improve grittiness in adolescents. Moreover, a serial mediation analysis found that higher usage of effective parenting practices in fathers and mothers are perceived for higher acceptance, contributing to higher grittiness, which then lowers mental health issues in adolescents. Our results suggest that organizations and individuals involved with adolescents should actively promote the adoption of effective parenting techniques by both mothers and fathers to enhance the mental well-being of adolescents.