Quality of Daughter-father Communication Associated with Youth Externalizing/Internalizing Problems in Thailand

Abstract

Quality of parent-youth communication has been studied as an important variable affecting youth Quality of parent-youth communication has been studied as an important variable affecting youth mental health. However, the term “parents” in previous studies have been mixed both mother and father; or focused only on mother. Limited research has explored whether the quality of communication (positive and problematic) between youth daughter and her father is associated with daughter’s mental health. This study aimed to explore the association between quality of daughter-father communication and daughter’s mental health. The Circumplex model was guided the hypotheses: 1) There will be a negative relationship between positive of youth daughter-father communication and daughters’ externalizing/internalizing problems; 2) There will be a positive relationship between problematic of youth daughter-father communication and daughters’ externalizing/ internalizing problems. Participants were 156 female youth from two high schools in Southern Thailand. Thai versions of Parent-adolescent Communication Scale measured quality of youth-father communication and Youth Selfreport Checklist measured youth externalizing/ internalizing problems were completed by youth. A correlation and a series of hierarchical regression procedures were used to analyze the data after adjusting for covariates factors: youth stressful life events, father marital status, and socioeconomic status. Significant positive associations were found between problematic of youth daughter-fathercommunication and daughters’ mental health. However, there were no significant associations between positiveof daughter-father communication and daughters’ mental health. Nurses and researchers working with youth and family can apply these findings to inform parents about the important of problematic communicationbetween fathers and daughters toward daughter’s mental health.