Adolescents Spending Time with Their Parents: Does It Matter?

Abstract

The current study aims to explore the relevance of ‘time spent with parents’ for different risk behaviors (i.e., alcohol use, smoking, gambling and problematic social media use), peer factors (i.e., time spent with peers, peer pressure and peer support) and parenting behaviors (i.e., control, relatedness and family support). A cross-sectional design was employed, including 2165 adolescents aged from 12 to 18 years (Mage = 14.7, SD = 1.33; 52% girls; 30% in pre-vocational education). Independent sample t-tests were performed to compare different contrasting groups (≤1 h vs. >1 h; ≤2 h vs. >2 h; ≤3 h and >3 h) for relevant outcomes. Results. Adolescents spending on average >1 h per day with their parents in joint activities reported lower levels of risk behavior, less peer pressure, more peer support and more parental control, relatedness and family support. At the same time, this does not seem to come at the expense of spending time with peers, as adolescents spending 1 h or more with their parents did not spend less time with their peers. All the findings point at the relevance of parents spending time and undertaking joint activities with their adolescent children.