Does the Importance of Parent and Peer Relationships for Adolescents' Life Satisfaction Vary Across Cultures?

Beate Schwarz; Boris Mayer; Gisela Trommsdorff; Asher Ben-Arieh; Mihaela Friedlmeier; Katarzyna Lubiewska; Ramesh Mishra; Karl Peltzer

doi:10.1177/0272431611419508

Does the Importance of Parent and Peer Relationships for Adolescents' Life Satisfaction Vary Across Cultures?

Beate Schwarz^*, Boris Mayer, Gisela Trommsdorff, Asher Ben-Arieh, Mihaela Friedlmeier, Katarzyna Lubiewska, Ramesh Mishra, Karl Peltzer

^*Corresponding author for this work

The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

90 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study investigated whether the associations between (a) the quality of the parent-child relationship and peer acceptance and (b) early adolescents' life satisfaction differed depending on the importance of family values in the respective culture. As part of the Value of Children Study, data from a subsample of N = 1,034 adolescents (58% female, M age = 13.62 years, SD = 0.60 years) from 11 cultures was analyzed. Multilevel analyses revealed a positive relation between parental admiration and adolescents' life satisfaction independent of cultural membership. Further, the higher the importance of family values in a culture, the weaker was the positive effect of peer acceptance on adolescents' life satisfaction. The results highlight the universal importance of parental warmth and support in adolescence and underline the effect of culturally shared family values on the role of peer acceptance for adolescent development.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	55-80
Number of pages	26
Journal	Journal of Early Adolescence
Volume	32
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431611419508
State	Published - Feb 2012

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study is part of the cross-cultural and interdisciplinary research project “Value of Children and Intergenerational Relations.” Principal investigators: Gisela Trommsdorff, University of Konstanz, and Bernhard Nauck, Chemnitz University of Technology. For seven countries (People’s Republic of China, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Poland, Turkey, United States) the study was funded by the German Research Foundation [TR 169/9-1, -2, -3 and NA 164/9-1, -3, -4, -5]. In India, the study was cofunded by the University of Konstanz and the German Research Foundation. In France, the study was funded by the University Victor Segalen, Bordeaux; in Russia it was co-funded by the Lobatchevskij State University, Nizhnij Novgorod; and in South Africa by the University of Limpopo.

Keywords

Parent-adolescent relationships
cross-cultural
family values
life satisfaction
peer relationships

Access to Document

10.1177/0272431611419508

Cite this

@article{c6a1ecc08e7445468d9eb19d342eb28c,

title = "Does the Importance of Parent and Peer Relationships for Adolescents' Life Satisfaction Vary Across Cultures?",

abstract = "This study investigated whether the associations between (a) the quality of the parent-child relationship and peer acceptance and (b) early adolescents' life satisfaction differed depending on the importance of family values in the respective culture. As part of the Value of Children Study, data from a subsample of N = 1,034 adolescents (58% female, M age = 13.62 years, SD = 0.60 years) from 11 cultures was analyzed. Multilevel analyses revealed a positive relation between parental admiration and adolescents' life satisfaction independent of cultural membership. Further, the higher the importance of family values in a culture, the weaker was the positive effect of peer acceptance on adolescents' life satisfaction. The results highlight the universal importance of parental warmth and support in adolescence and underline the effect of culturally shared family values on the role of peer acceptance for adolescent development.",

keywords = "Parent-adolescent relationships, cross-cultural, family values, life satisfaction, peer relationships",

author = "Beate Schwarz and Boris Mayer and Gisela Trommsdorff and Asher Ben-Arieh and Mihaela Friedlmeier and Katarzyna Lubiewska and Ramesh Mishra and Karl Peltzer",

note = "Funding Information: The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study is part of the cross-cultural and interdisciplinary research project “Value of Children and Intergenerational Relations.” Principal investigators: Gisela Trommsdorff, University of Konstanz, and Bernhard Nauck, Chemnitz University of Technology. For seven countries (People{\textquoteright}s Republic of China, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Poland, Turkey, United States) the study was funded by the German Research Foundation [TR 169/9-1, -2, -3 and NA 164/9-1, -3, -4, -5]. In India, the study was cofunded by the University of Konstanz and the German Research Foundation. In France, the study was funded by the University Victor Segalen, Bordeaux; in Russia it was co-funded by the Lobatchevskij State University, Nizhnij Novgorod; and in South Africa by the University of Limpopo. ",

year = "2012",

month = feb,

doi = "10.1177/0272431611419508",

language = "אנגלית",

volume = "32",

pages = "55--80",

journal = "Journal of Early Adolescence",

issn = "0272-4316",