Adolescents in Transition to Adulthood: Parental Support, Relationship Satisfaction, and Post-transition Adjustment

Abstract

The transition from high school is a pivotal period for intergenerational relations, as the asymmetry characterizing pre-transition relations with parents is reconfigured. Changes in adolescent-parent relations across this transition have potentially important implications for post-transition adjustment. A prospective study was conducted with an ethnically diverse sample that included adolescents who were not college-bound. Maternal, but not paternal, relations improved across the transition from high school to adult life. Changes in support from both mothers and fathers were associated with changes in relationship satisfaction and changes in satisfaction predicted post-transition adjustment. The results verify the importance of parental support to the quality of relational bonds between young adults and their parents. They also affirm the significance of these bonds for post-transition adjustment.

The Early Stages of the Transition to Adulthood: Similarities and Differences between Mother-Daughter and Mother-Son Dyads

“…This was particularly so early on in the transition process (Jones et al 2006). Levitt, Silver and Santos (2007) also found parents to play an important role in successful transitions whereby having a satisfactory relationship with one's parents was found to be predictive of psychological adjustment. Likewise, Knoester's (2003) structural equation modelling study of a representative sample of youth and their parents from the United States also revealed that the quality of the parent-child relationship and the parents' own sense of well-being were both predictive of children's well-being during young adulthood.…”

Parental Involvement During the College Transition: A Review and Suggestion for its Conceptual Definition

“…Higher levels of maternal closeness increased the odds of providing economic and housing support at age 24, leading the researchers to conclude that "those who were closer to their mothers also received other types of parental aid… that could have contributed to their ability to become selfsufficient" (p. 426). A prospective longitudinal study by Levitt, Silver, and Santos (2007) found that changes in support post-high school to college transition positively predicted and accounted for the most variance in posttransition relationship satisfaction with parents. Because post-and not pre-transition support was related to relationship satisfaction, the authors concluded that the college transition provided impetus for changes in family relationships.…”

Adoption status and family relationships during the transition to young adulthood.

“…Beginning in early adolescence and enduring until young adulthood, adolescents have self-reported closer, more satisfied relationships with mothers compared to fathers (Levitt et al, 2007; Thornton et al, 1995), marked by equal responsibility and friendliness in comparison to father-adolescent relationships (Pipp et al, 1985). When parent-adolescent relationships are viewed during the transition from adolescence into young adulthood after high school, similar trends in relationship quality can be seen.…”