Addressing the Long-term Intergenerational Effects of Parental Psychological Distress and Offspring Loneliness on their Psychological Distress: Roles of the Dual Filial Piety Profiles

The rising prevalence of psychological distress has intensified the disease burdens and revealed marked regional disparities in mental health outcomes. Addressing this challenge requires culturally sensitive frameworks to understand psychological distress. This study examined the long-term impact of parental psychological distress and family-level loneliness on the psychological well-being of offspring. It also explored how distinct filial piety profiles may moderate these associations. The analytic data consisted of 922 households collected from the Panel Study of Family Dynamics (PSFD) database in 2016, 2022, and 2024. It included 922 parents (49.7% male, Mage = 62.29 years) and 1,561 offspring (50.5% male, Mage = 33.93 years). Heterogeneity analysis and hierarchical linear modeling were employed to examine the proposed relationships. The results identified four latent filial piety profiles among offspring: Balanced Mode, Reciprocal Mode, Neutral Mode, and Non-filial Mode. Results indicated that both parental psychological distress and family-level loneliness significantly contributed to individual psychological distress. Offspring classified under the Balanced and Reciprocal Modes reported lower levels of psychological distress compared to those in the Non-filial Mode. Although the moderation effects of filial piety profiles were not statistically significant, incorporating the cross-level interaction terms into the model made the main effects of parental psychological distress nonsignificant. Finally, this study presented discussions and suggestions.