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Using data from the China Education Panel Survey (2014\u20132015) with a nationally representative sample of 5,055 eighth-grade students. Analyses were conducted via Stata 17.0 and SPSS 26, employing chain mediation tests and bootstrap analysis. The results were as follows:1) parent-child communication directly contributes to the enhancement of adolescents\u2019 non-cognitive abilities, facilitates their access to social support, and promotes their participation in physical exercise; 2) parent-child communication indirectly improves adolescents\u2019 non-cognitive abilities through the chain mediating effect of social support and physical exercise; 3) the positive effect of parent-child communication on non-cognitive abilities is stronger among urban adolescents compared to rural adolescents, and more pronounced among only children than non-only children. In conclusion, parent-child communication not only directly and positively predicts adolescents\u2019 non-cognitive abilities but also exerts indirect effects via two single mediators (social support and physical exercise) and a chain mediation mechanism combining both mediators.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0338946","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,2]],"date-time":"2026-01-02T18:51:11Z","timestamp":1767379871000},"page":"e0338946","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["The association between parent-child communication and adolescents\u2019 non-cognitive abilities: An examination of the chain mediating 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