What Decides the Well-Being of the Relationship between Parents and Adolescents

Abstract

The literature indicates a variety of factors that contribute to adolescent well-being: among these, the parent–adolescent relationship has a key role. The present article offered an overview of studies on parent–adolescent relationships across diverse family forms, not limited to the traditional family but also including “non-traditional” and “modern” families. To do so, this article described the evolution of the concept of family over the last fifty years and traced the significant family variables that guarantee adolescent well-being. Additionally, this article discussed the changes that occurred in family research, shifting from studies that considered only the family structure to more recent studies that investigated family processes and contextual factors. Overall, the reviewed studies indicated that the quality of parent–adolescent relationship, the interparental conflict and the consequent spillover effect on the child subsystem, and the changes in the economic situation following parental separation/divorce override the effect of the family structure. Finally, this article pointed out the need to examine, in the future research, adolescent well-being across diverse families by adopting more fine-grained methodologies, collecting data from the entire family system, and using a multi-method assessment to obtain a more ecological view of family complexity.