Communication was the clearest signal
Teenagers who reported more communication with their parents also reported fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression, while reports of greater paternal neglect were linked to more symptoms. The same analysis pointed to cognitive flexibility, one of the executive-function dimensions measured by the researchers, as the most consistent statistical link between parenting reports and symptoms. The findings describe a pattern in the data, not proof that parenting caused the symptoms or that cognitive flexibility was the causal mechanism.
The school context mattered
The differences appeared across school-vulnerability settings. On the study's RCADS internalizing score, a combined measure of anxiety and depression symptoms, the average was 57.37 in high-vulnerability schools, compared with 53.30 in low-vulnerability schools. High-vulnerability students also reported less maternal communication, with mean scores of 16.20 versus 17.67, and less paternal communication, 13.39 versus 16.33. The reported comparisons were statistically significant, with p values of 0.034, 0.013 and 0.006, respectively. However, the groups did not differ significantly in reported inhibition, cognitive flexibility or working memory, or in hostile and neglectful parenting styles.
What was measured
Researchers analyzed data from 165 secondary-school students aged 12 to 16 in six Barcelona-area schools. The sample was nearly evenly split by sex, with 50.9% boys and 49.1% girls. It included 119 students from low-vulnerability schools and 46 from high-vulnerability schools. Among 163 students with valid RCADS total internalizing scores, 32, or 19.6%, scored at or above the threshold of 65. That result is a symptom-score finding, not a clinical diagnosis.
The adolescents rated how communicative, hostile or neglectful they perceived their mothers and fathers to be using the CRPBI-A. They also reported executive-function difficulties through the BRIEF-2, covering inhibition, cognitive flexibility and working memory, and completed the RCADS for anxiety and depression symptoms. Higher BRIEF-2 scores indicate greater reported executive-function difficulty.
The researchers compared the two school groups with Mann-Whitney U tests. They then ran separate hierarchical regression models for maternal and paternal parenting dimensions, adjusting for age, sex and school complexity. Finally, they used a parallel mediation model to examine the three executive-function dimensions together. The mediation estimates used percentile bootstrap confidence intervals from 5,000 resamples.
The associations held after adjustment
After adjustment, the maternal model explained 13.3% of the variation in symptom scores. Higher maternal communication was associated with lower symptoms, while maternal hostility and neglect were not independent predictors in that model. The paternal model explained 16.9% of symptom variation. Higher paternal communication was associated with lower symptoms, and higher paternal neglect with higher symptoms; paternal hostility was not significant.
The correlation pattern was similar. Symptoms were positively associated with reported difficulties in all three executive-function areas. The strongest association was with cognitive flexibility, at 0.583, followed by working memory at 0.482 and inhibition at 0.352. Symptoms were negatively associated with parental communication and positively associated with hostility and neglect.
A possible pathway, not a cause
The mediation analysis found significant total indirect effects for maternal communication, paternal communication and paternal neglect. In ordinary language, the model found that these parenting reports and symptom scores were connected partly through their statistical relationship with the executive-function measures. Cognitive flexibility was the only specific mediator supported in all three models. Working memory was supported only in the paternal-communication model, and inhibition was not a significant specific mediator. Once the mediators were included, the direct effects were no longer statistically significant.
The mediation results were exploratory, and the analysis was cross-sectional. No separate a priori power analysis was conducted for the regression and mediation analyses, and the school groups were unequal in size. The students supplied the reports for parenting, executive-function difficulties and symptoms, so the findings concern their reported experiences.
Taken together, the results suggest that communication with both parents is associated with fewer reported symptoms in this sample, and that cognitive flexibility deserves closer study as a possible link. The study does not show that changing parenting or training executive functions would improve adolescent mental health. Its findings are limited to 12- to 16-year-old students in the studied Barcelona-area school context.
Paper data and sources
Original title: Mediational Role of Executive Functions on Parental Style and Anxiety and Depression Symptoms in Adolescents From Different Vulnerability Environments: A Cross-Sectional Study.
Authors: Anna Carballo-Márquez, Aikaterini Ampatzoglou, Juliana Rojas-Rincón et al.
Journal/Repository: Depression and anxiety
Status: Peer-reviewed
First online: 2026-08-20
DOI: 10.1155/da/1162692
Original paper