The role of parents in emerging adults’ psychological well-being: A person-oriented approach

The purpose of this study was to gain an overview of Spanish emerging adults’ family relationships and their link with psychological well-being and psychological distress. The sample comprised 1502 undergraduate students (903 women and 599 men) aged between 18 and 29 (M = 20.32 and SD = 2.13), recru...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: García Mendoza, María del Carmen, Sánchez Queija, María Inmaculada, Parra Jiménez, Águeda
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/81485
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/81485
https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12388
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Relaciones familiares
Psicología del bienestar social
Adultos
Emerging adulthood
Family relationships
Psychological well-being
Adultez emergente
Descripción
Sumario:The purpose of this study was to gain an overview of Spanish emerging adults’ family relationships and their link with psychological well-being and psychological distress. The sample comprised 1502 undergraduate students (903 women and 599 men) aged between 18 and 29 (M = 20.32 and SD = 2.13), recruited from two universities in Spain. A cluster analysis identified three groups of families based on the centrality of five family variables: parental involvement, parental support for autonomy, parental warmth, behavioral control and psychological control. The three groups or clusters were labeled high-quality family relationships (HQ), intermediate-quality family relationships (IQ) and low-quality family relationships (LQ). Women were overrepresented in the HQ cluster, whereas men were overrepresented in the IQ cluster. Moreover, emerging adults who perceived better family relationships (high levels of parental involvement, parental support for autonomy and parental warmth, and low levels of behavioral and psychological control) were found to have a higher level of psychological adjustment. Thus, our results indicate that family plays a key role in the psychological well-being of emerging adults. The discussion focuses on the implications of this finding for the parent-child relationship, and explores how it extends our knowledge about family relationships during emerging adulthood.