A Longitudinal Study of the Relations Between Parent-Adolescent Conflict and Adolescent Psychological Well-Being

Abstract

In this longitudinal study, the relationships between parent-adolescent conflict and adolescent psychological well-being were examined in a sample of Chinese adolescents (N = 378) via children's and parents' reports of parent-adolescent conflict. The results indicate that parent-adolescent conflict based on ratings obtained from the different sources was concurrently related to hopelessness, life satisfaction, self-esteem, purpose in life, and general psychiatric morbidity at Time 1 and Time 2. Longitudinal and prospective analyses (Time 1 predictors of Time 2 criterion variables) suggest that the relations between parent-adolescent conflict and adolescent psychological well-being are bidirectional. Although the strengths of association between parent-adolescent conflict and adolescent psychological well-being were similar for male and female adolescents, father-adolescent conflict, relative to mother-adolescent conflict, was found to exert a stronger influence on adolescent psychological well-being.