Abstract
BACKGROUND: Parent-child bond especially the alienation towards parents, significantly influences an individual's lifetime mental health. This study, grounded in intergenerational transmission theory, aims to reveal the influence of less-attended parents' perceived alienation towards their own parents on children's to-parent alienation and potential mediators (children's life-events) and moderators (children's gender and left-behind status). METHODS: 782 Chinese parent-child pairs were surveyed using the Inventory of Alienation towards Parents and the Adolescent Self-Rating Life-events Checklist. Children (aged between 8 and 14 years old) were surveyed 6-months after parents' survey. RESULTS: Parents' to-parent and to-child alienation as well as children's to-mother and to-father alienation were moderately to highly correlated (r = 0.50-0.91), while parents and children's alienation were mildly correlated (r = 0.14-0.23). Structural equation modeling showed that mother's to-parent alienation predicted children's to-mother alienation, which was fully mediated by mother's to-child alienation and children's life-events. Father's to-father alienation indirectly predicted children's to-father alienation through children's life-events. Moderation model showed that girls had a stronger correlation between parent's to-mother and to-father alienation. The prediction of father's to-father alienation on children's life-events was weaker when the father was leaving home for more than six months. CONCLUSIONS: The findings are among the first to reveal the prediction of parents' perceived alienation on children's alienation, with stronger effect from the same-gender parent. The intergenerational transmission of perceived alienation is mediated by children's life-events and moderated by children's gender and left-behind status. To interrupt the transmission of perceived alienation between generations, more attention should be paid to parents' perceived alienation first, while children's status (e.g., life-events and left-behind status) should also be considered to develop psychological interventions in schools and families.