Parent–Child Relationships and Adolescents' Life Satisfaction Across the First Decade of the New Millennium

• Author: Carmen Moreno,Antonia Jiménez‐Iglesias,Irene García‐Moya
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12249
• Published date: 01 July 2017
• Date: 01 July 2017

A J-I, I G-M,  C M University of Seville

Parent–Child Relationships and Adolescents’ Life

Satisfaction Across the First Decade of the New

Millennium

Objective: To examine whether changes occ-

urred in parent–child relationships (maternal

and paternal affection, ease of communication

with the mother and father, maternal and pater-

nal knowledge, and family activities) between

2002 and 2010 in boys and girls and to exam-

ine the contributions of these family dimensions

to life satisfaction.

Background: Although parent–child relation-

ships may be affected by social change, there

are few investigations of change in parent–child

relationships over time.

Method: The sample consisted of 46,593 ado-

lescents between 11 to 18 years of age who par-

ticipated in the 2002, 2006, or 2010 editions of

the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children

(HBSC) study in Spain. Trendanalysis including

univariate analyses of variance (ANOVAs) and

factorial ANOVAswere conducted separately for

boys and girls, and effect size tests were calcu-

lated.

Results: Communication with fathers and fam-

ily activities statistically increased across HBSC

editions and parent–child relationships were

positively associated with life satisfaction across

the examined period.

Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology,

University of Seville, Calle Camilo José Cela, s/n. 41018

Sevilla, Spain (amjimigl@us.es).

Key Words: Adolescence, cross-sequential analysis, family

dimensions, life satisfaction, parent–child relationships.

Conclusion: There were small positive changes

in some family dimensions, and some of them

were increasingly important for adolescent life

satisfaction over time.

Implications: Interventions for strengthening

parent–child relationships and promoting ado-

lescent well-being should include mothers and

fathers and emphasize affection, communica-

tion, and family activities.

B

Investigations of changes in parent–child rela-

tionships over time are of interest (Parke &

Buriel, 2008). Indeed, according to Bron-

fenbrenner’s ecological model (1979), the

macrosystem (historical, social, cultural, and

economic factors) has a direct inuence on chil-

dren’s and adolescents’ microsystems, inclu-

ding the family. Current models in the eld of

social change (e.g., Pinquart & Silbereisen,

2004) also emphasize the importance of

microsystems as mediators of change at the

societal level. Furthermore, in the specic

area of family theory, the family life course

development framework emphasizes the impor-

tance of examining aggregate patterns and

variations in family interactions as a way to

monitor social change in the family institution

over time (White & Klein, 2008). However,

compared to other topics, such as adolescents’

lifestyles, changes in parent–adolescent rela-

tionships over time have rarely been studied.

This may be because family dimensions, such as

512 Family Relations 66 (July 2017): 512–526

DOI:10.1111/fare.12249