Parental emotional availability as a mediator in family relationships and adolescent emotion regulation

This cross-sectional study examined the relationship between family relationships and emotional regulation among adolescents, as well as explored the role of parental emotional availability as a mediating variable, using the Brief Family Relationship Scale (BFRS), the Questionnaire of Emotion Regulation for Children and Adolescents (ERQ–CA), and the Lum Emotional Availability among Parents. Participants were 421 Algerian adolescents (M = 12.36 years) in middle school. Data were analyzed using mediation analysis in JASP software version 0.18. The findings suggested that mothers’ emotional availability significantly mediated the relationship, whereas fathers’ emotional availability did not. The mediation of mothers’ emotional availability is partial, whereas fathers’ emotional availability does not mediate the relationship between family relationships and adolescent emotion regulation. The findings suggest that a more comprehensive understanding of the differences between mothers' and fathers' emotional availability is needed for future studies.