Stability and change in family relationships in the transitional period of emerging adulthood

Abstract

Throughout emerging adulthood, family relationships have been scarcely studied in South European countries and the research using longitudinal designs are practically non-existent. This study has two specific objectives. First, to examine whether family relationships changes or remain stable over emerging adulthood. Second, to analyse whether parent-child relationship at the beginning of emerging adulthood are associated with psychological distress four years later. Method: A sample of 400 emerging adults was followed from early to middle emerging adulthood. They completed, at wave 1 (Mean: 20.31; SD: 2.04) and wave 2 (Mean: 23.66; SD: 2.08), questionnaires to measure socio-demographic variables (age and sex), family social support, parental involvement, parental warmth, parental autonomy support, behavioural and psychological control exercised by parents, and psychological distress. Results: Data showed high relative stability in family relationships seen globally. There is absolute stability in parental involvement and parental autonomy support meanwhile parental social support, parental warmth and parental control decrease over the years. Parental control at W1 is significantly and positively associated with psychological distress at W2. By contrast, the rest of the family variables analysed at W1 had a negative and significant association with psychological distress at W2. Discussion: These findings suggest that although some parental behaviours decrease throughout emerging adulthood, family relationships still play an important role during the third-decade people’s lives. Finally, our findings highlight the importance of spreading our knowledge about this stage in the European context in order to optimize young people’s development with psychoeducational programs for them and their families who faced a new challenge during these years.