Stressful life events and adolescent well‐being: The role of parent and peer relationships

Abstract

It is well established that stressful life events (e.g., family bereavements or moving to a new country) are damaging to psychological health and well‐being. Indeed, social relationships are often noted as an important factor that can influence well‐being and buffer the negative effects of stress. However, the quality and source of these relationships, particularly for adolescents, are often overlooked. Using the Growing Up in Ireland Survey, a population‐based study of 13‐year‐old Irish adolescents (N = 7,525; 51.1% female), the current study examines the quality of both parent and peer relationships as potential mechanisms explaining the association between stressful life events and psychological well‐being indices in adolescents. As expected, results showed that stressful life events negatively impacted the psychological well‐being of adolescents. Parallel mediation analyses indicated that both parent and peer relationship quality mediated this association. Further exploratory analyses found that for girls, greater numbers of stressful life events were associated with poorer quality relationships with both their parents and peers, and in turn, these were linked to lower levels of psychological well‐being. For boys, this effect was only evident for parental relationship quality, but not peers. The implication of these findings for adolescent's psychological well‐being, particularly for girls, is discussed.

“Look at them! They all have friends and not me”: the role of peer relationships in schooling from the perspective of primary children designated as “lower-attaining”

“…Mínguez (2020) provided evidence for personal relationships being the strongest factor for predicting happiness according to the Subjective Wellbeing literature. One aspect leading to wellbeing is that peer relationships can buffer the negative effects of stress or fear (McMahon et al, 2020). For example, Baines and MacIntyre's (2019) research illustrated that enjoyment of sitting with peers to eat a meal was positively related to greater liking of lessons in school and school liking generally.…”

Keeping the country positive during the COVID 19 pandemic: Evidence from India

“…During such times, where emotional balance can go for a toss, parent and peer relationships can matter a lot (McMahon et al, 2020). Further, there is a high chance of people developing psychological stress and disorders like depression, insomnia, anxiety, anger, boredom, etc.…”

Relevant Factors in Adolescent Well-Being: Family and Parental Relationships

“…However, in addition to habits or lifestyles, there are social and psychological factors that contribute to young people’s well-being and therefore influence their HRQoL. Family relationships, for example, have been shown to be an important conditioning factor of adolescent well-being [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ], relationships between parents [ 23 ], relationships with peers [ 19 , 24 ] or satisfaction with school [ 25 ]. For example, the study by Sánchez-Alcaraz showed significant correlations between all dimensions of HRQoL, with students with better self-esteem and better relationships with family, friends and school having a higher quality of life [ 26 ].…”