The role of the family in adolescents' subjective well-being

Abstract

The goal of this research is to study the relation between adolescents' subjective well-being with: (a) their perceptions regarding their relationship with their parents, (b) the corresponding perceptions of their parents and (c) parents' subjective well-being. The participants of this study were 714 adolescents attending the two last grades of Junior High School (Gymnasium) and the two last grades of High School (Lyceum) as well as their parents from schools of the broader area of Athens randomly selected. The following questionnaires were used for data collection from the adolescents who participated in the study: (a) The assessment of subjective well-being was based on the Berne Questionnaire of Subjective Well-Being/ Youth Form that provides the following factors: Positive attitude towards life, Self-esteem, Satisfaction from life, Problems, Somatic complaints and Depressive mood. The first three factors are included in a general factor called Satisfaction which is the positive aspect of subjective well-being (according to the suggested structure of the concept in the relevant literature) while the remaining three are included in a second general factor called Ill-being which is the negative aspect of subjective well-being, and (b) the assessment of family relationships was based on the "Affectual solidarity in the family scale" (which was also administered to parents). In addition, parents completed the questionnaires "Satisfaction from Life scale" and the "Assessment of the emotional satisfaction from life-Keyes scale" for assessing their level of subjective well-being. Finally, information on demographics was also collected. Statistical analysis of the data included descriptive and deductive methods in order to examine the relationship and the interaction of the variables under research. Findings revealed several interesting relationships. In particular the results showed that the better the relationships are perceived by the adolescents the more satisfied they feel from their lives. In particular, the good relationships with the mother strengthen the positive dimension of subjective well-being while the good relationships with the father decrease the negative dimension of subjective well-being. Findings also suggest no significant relation among parents' perceptions and their subjective well-being with the well-being of the adolescents. The results of the research provide the guidelines for further research on the role of the family in adolescents' subjective well-being while they also allow for a better understanding of the way adolescents' subjective well-being is related to various variables in order to further enhance it through appropriate interventions.