The influence of differences between father and mother on adolescent adjustment

Este trabajo se centra en analizar cómo influyen en el consumo de sustancias (tabaco, alcohol y cannabis) y el bienestar psicológico adolescente (calidad de vida relacionada con la salud y satisfacción vital) las diferencias entre el padre y la madre en afecto, promoción de la autonomía, revelación, interés y conocimiento. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 10170 chicos y chicas españoles de 13 a 18 años de familias biparentales que participaron en la edición 2006 del estudio Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC). Los resultados mostraron que los adolescentes que indicaron que su padre y madre coincidían en presentar altos niveles en las dimensiones familiares analizadas consumieron menos sustancias y tuvieron mejor bienestar psicológico. Por el contrario, el ajuste de los adolescentes cuyos progenitores (padre y madre) tenían bajos niveles en esas dimensiones familiares fue peor. Concretamente, la dimensión más importante para el consumo de sustancias fue el conocimiento parental y para el bienestar psicológico lo fue el afecto parental; la revelación adolescente solo fue relevante para el consumo de alcohol y la calidad de vida, mientras que la promoción parental de la autonomía lo fue para la calidad de vida.This paper analyzes how the differences between father and mother in affection, promotion of autonomy, disclosure, solicitation and knowledge influence on substance use (tobacco, alcohol and cannabis) and psychological well-being (health-related quality of life and life satisfaction). The sample was composed of 10170 boys and girls aged 13 to 18 years from two-parent families who participated in 2006 edition of Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. Results indicated that adolescents whose both parents had high values for the different family dimensions used less substance and scored higher in psychological well-being. In contrast, the adjustment of adolescents whose both parents had low values for the different family dimensions was worse. Specifically, the most important dimension for substance use was parental knowledge and for psychological well-being was parental affection; adolescent disclosure was only relevant for alcohol use and quality of life, and parental promotion of autonomy for quality of life

Sense of coherence and substance use in Spanish adolescents. Does the effect of SOC depend on patterns of substance use in their peer group?

Los objetivos de este trabajo fueron analizar las relaciones entre el sentido de coherencia (SOC) y el consumo de sustancias en los adolescentes españoles y el potencial efecto moderador de los patrones de consumo de sustancias en el grupo de iguales en dicha relación. La muestra constaba de 5475 adolescentes españoles de 15 a 18 años, participantes en la edición 2010 del estudio Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC). Los análisis estadísticos consistieron en análisis de cluster, para identificar grupos de adolescentes según los patrones de consumo de sustancias en su grupo de iguales, y regresión logística, con el SOC y los patrones de consumo en el grupo de iguales como predictores del consumo actual de tabaco y alcohol, episodios de embriaguez alguna vez en la vida y en la actualidad. Los resultados mostraron que un fuerte SOC parecía reducir la probabilidad de consumo de tabaco y episodios de embriaguez, pero no se asoció con el consumo actual de alcohol. Además, el efecto protector del SOC estaba moderado por los patrones de consumo del grupo de iguales. En concreto, el SOC tuvo un efecto protector significativo en los adolescentes cuyo grupo de iguales mostraba un patrón de no consumo o de frecuente consumo de alcohol y episodios de embriaguez ocasionales, pero el efecto del SOC desapareció si el patrón de consumo de los iguales incluía drogas ilegales. En conclusión, el SOC tiende a actuar como un factor protector individual respecto al consumo de sustancias durante la adolescencia, pero la influencia del grupo de iguales parece moderar dicho efecto protector del SOC.The aims of this work were to analyse the relationships between sense of coherence (SOC) and substance use among Spanish adolescents and to examine the potential moderator effect of the patterns of substance use in the peer group. Sample consisted of 5475 Spanish adolescents aged 15 to 18 from the 2010 edition of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. Statistical analysis included cluster analysis to identify groups of adolescents according to their peer group’s patterns of substance use and logistic regression with SOC and peers’ pattern of consumption as predictors of current tobacco use, current alcohol use, life-time drunkenness and current drunkenness. The results showed that a strong SOC seemed to reduce the adolescents’ likelihood of involving in tobacco use and drunkenness, but it was not associated with being a current drinker. In addition, the protective effect of SOC was moderated by peers’ patterns of substance use. Specifically, SOC had a significant protective influence in adolescents whose peer group showed either a nonconsumption pattern or a pattern of frequent alcohol use and occasional drunkenness; but the protective effect of SOC disappeared if peers showed a pattern of consumption that included illegal drugs. In conclusion, SOC tends to act as a protective personal variable with respect to substance use during adolescence, but the influence exerted by the peer group seems to moderate the aforementioned protective effect of SOC

Parent–child relationships and adolescents' life satisfaction across the first decade of the new millennium

Objective To examine whether changes occurred in parent–child relationships (maternal and paternal affection, ease of communication with the mother and father, maternal and paternal knowledge, and family activities) between 2002 and 2010 in boys and girls and to examine the contributions of these family dimensions to life satisfaction. Background Although parent–child relationships 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 adolescents between 11 to 18 years of age who participated in the 2002, 2006, or 2010 editions of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in Spain. Trend analysis including univariate analyses of variance (ANOVAs) and factorial ANOVAs were conducted separately for boys and girls, and effect size tests were calculated. Results Communication with fathers and family activities statistically increased across HBSC editions and parent–child relationships were positively associated with life satisfaction across the examined period. 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 adolescent well-being should include mothers and fathers and emphasize affection, communication, and family activities.Ministerio de Educación FPU2009-097

Social support from developmental contexts and adolescent substance use and well-being: a comparative study of Spain and Portugal

The aim of this study was to analyse the contribution of social support from family, friend and school (teacher and classmate) contexts in substance use (tobacco and alcohol use) and well-being (life satisfaction and health-related quality of life). Participants were 5,784 Portuguese and 22,610 Spanish adolescents aged 11 to 16 years, from the 2014 edition of the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in Portugal and Spain. Results showed that for a higher life satisfaction, family ( p < .001, partial η 2 = .032), teacher ( p < .001, partial η 2 = .018) and classmate ( p < .001, partial η 2 = .031) support were important in Portugal, and family ( p < .001, partial η 2 = .056) and friend ( p < .001, partial η 2 = .015) support in Spain. Similarly, for a better health-related quality of life, all the social support variables were relevant in Portugal (family: p < .001, partial η 2 = .063; teacher: p < .001, partial η 2 = .032; classmate: p < .001, partial η 2 = .054; friend: p < .001, partial η 2 = .034) and in Spain (family: p < .001, partial η 2 = .054; teacher: p < .001, partial η 2 = .014; classmate: p < .001, partial η 2 = .018; friend: p < .001, partial η 2 = .040). In contrast, only family support ( p < .001, partial η 2 = .014) was relevant in Portugal for tobacco use. Therefore, social support was more relevant for adolescent well-being than for adolescent substance use, and the most relevant source of support was family support, in both Spain and Portugal

Assessing adolescents' information management with mothers and fathers: a brief report

Adolescents’ information management is a fundamental topic for research on adolescence, with numerous studies using Kerr and Stattin’s (2000; Stattin & Kerr, 2000) scale or adapted versions from this tool for the assessment of this key dimension of parent-child relationships. Although this measure was initially considered to be a unidimensional scale assessing disclosure, studies later suggested a two-factor structure, making a distinction between disclosure and secrecy. The objective of this study is to analyse the factorial structure of Kerr and Stattin’s (2000) original scale of routine disclosure, including a separate analysis of the scale functioning when used to assess information management with mothers and with fathers. Participants came from a representative sample of Spanish adolescents aged 11–18 years old who had taken part in the 2014 edition of the WHO-collaborative survey Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC). Confirmatory factor analysis was performed using EQS 6.1 to compare two competing factorial structures based on the literature: one factor vs two correlated factors. Results showed that the two correlated-factors structure had a better fit to the data, both for the analysis of the maternal and paternal scales. However, one of the disclosure items also loaded on secrecy, which can be attributed to the item content. Therefore, although our results further support the differentiation between disclosure and secrecy, they also point to a possible effect of the imbalance of item content in this scale functioning, which requires attention in future research.Ministerio de Salud, Servicios Sociales e Igualdad de Españ

Understanding the joint effects of family and other developmental contexts on the sense of coherence (SOC): A person-focused analysis using the Classification Tree

Using a person-focused approach, the present study sought to identify meaningful constellations of contextual factors that led to predominantly high and low levels of sense of coherence (SOC). Specifically, the contributions of the quality of parent-child relationships, teacher and classmate support, models of behaviour in the peer group, and neighbourhood assets were examined in a representative sample of Spanish adolescents aged 13 to 18 that had taken part in the 2010 edition of the study Health Behaviour in School-aged Children. The quality of parent-child relationships emerged as the main predictor of SOC for the whole sample, but the remaining factors also made significant contributions, which underlines the importance of the simultaneous analysis of the main contexts in adolescents’ lives. Additionally, the identified constellations usually included compensatory effects, so no factor should be considered to be completely determining. Interestingly, the role of support at school was different depending on contextual profiles.Ministerio de Educación AP2009-097

Building a composite factorial score for the assessment of quality of parent–child relationships in adolescence

The quality of parent–child relationships has important implications for adolescent development and well-being. However, whereas numerous measures of specific dimensions contributing to quality of parent–child relationships are available, scales that provide a global assessment of this content are scarce. Consequently, the assessment of quality of parent–child relationships poses a challenge to the researcher, especially when the need exists to consider its main aspects but long instruments can not be used due to diverse circumstances. This paper presents a composite factorial score on quality of parent–child relationships developed from four short measures of affection, communication, parental knowledge and family satisfaction that can contribute to solving some of those difficulties. This composite score can be a useful tool to assess quality of parent–child relationships, especially for studies devoted to the study of the relationships between experiences within the family and the adolescent's well-being.Ministerio de Sanidad, Política Social e Igualdad de EspañaUniversidad de SevillaMinisterio de Educación de España AP2009–097

The Contribution from Relationships with Parents and Teachers to the Adolescent Sense of Coherence: Do Prosociality and Hyperactivity-inattention Also Play a Significant Role?

Sense of coherence (SOC) is receiving increasing attention from a number of disciplines interested in the study of adolescent positive development. Given the significant links between SOC and well-being, attention is now moving to the precursors of SOC. The aim of this study was to analyze the contribution of relationships with parents and teachers (contextual factors) to young people’s SOC while taking into account the potential role of individual differences in prosociality and hyperactivity-inattention (individual factors). The sample consisted of 2,979 adolescents aged 15–18 who had participated in the 2010 edition of the World Health Organization (WHO) survey ‘Health Behaviour in School-aged Children’ (HBSC) in Spain. Data were collected by means of anonymous online questionnaires, and statistical analyses included factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Both contextual and individual factors made significant contributions to the adolescents’ SOC. Importantly, the significance of relationships with parents and teachers remained once prosociality and hyperactivity-inattention were taken into account