Although the association between parenting stress and child behavioral outcomes is well established, there is limited research with families of adolescents. Due to multiple transitions occurring and adolescents seeking independence, this developmental period may be especially difficult for families compared to earlier stages of child development. Exploring the influence of parenting stress on adolescent externalizing problems and how parenting can explain this link can inform parenting of adolescents, reduce the risk of adolescent deviant behaviors, and promote a smoother transition into adulthood. Thus, this study examined associations between parenting stress and externalizing problems (i.e., oppositional behaviors, proactive aggression, and reactive aggression), considering whether parenting behaviors (i.e., acceptance, psychological control, and lax control) served as mediators among 282 biological mothers (ages 28–61; M = 40.29; SD = 6.6) with 12- to 17-year-old adolescents (M = 14.19; SD = 1.84; 50.7% males). As expected, parenting stress was positively associated with all forms of adolescent externalizing problems. Additionally, parental acceptance mediated the association between parenting stress and all adolescent outcomes. Psychological control only mediated the association between parenting stress and oppositional behaviors and reactive aggression. Lax control only mediated the link between parenting stress and proactive aggression. The findings suggest that examining parenting dimensions and adolescent externalizing problems separately provided specificity that can inform future research and clinical interventions. Clinicians may benefit from assessing for and treating parenting stress among families with adolescents and targeting increasing parental acceptance and decreasing parental lax and psychological control during parenting interventions.

尽管育儿压力与儿童行为结果之间的关联已经确立，但对青少年家庭的研究有限。由于发生了多次转变和青少年寻求独立，与儿童发展的早期阶段相比，这个发展时期对家庭来说可能特别困难。探索育儿压力对青少年外化问题的影响以及育儿如何解释这种联系可以为青少年的育儿提供信息，降低青少年异常行为的风险，并促进更平稳地过渡到成年。因此，本研究考察了育儿压力与外化问题（即对立行为、主动攻击和反应性攻击）之间的关联，考虑了育儿行为（即接受、心理控制、M  = 40.29；SD  = 6.6）与 12 至 17 岁的青少年（M  = 14.19；SD = 1.84; 50.7% 男性）。正如预期的那样，养育压力与所有形式的青少年外化问题呈正相关。此外，父母的接受度介导了养育压力与所有青少年结果之间的关联。心理控制只介导了养育压力与对立行为和反应性攻击之间的关联。松懈的控制只调节了养育压力和主动攻击之间的联系。研究结果表明，分别检查育儿维度和青少年外化问题提供了可以为未来研究和临床干预提供信息的特异性。