The Influence of Family Structure Vs. Family Climate on Adolescent Well-Being
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The Influence of Family Structure Vs. Family Climate on Adolescent Well-Being Tommy M. Phillips
Published online: 1 February 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012
Abstract A study was conducted to explore adolescent well-being as a function of family climate versus family structure. Two hundred seventy-eight adolescents (52% female, 48% male; mean age = 14.78 years) completed questionnaires that assessed family structure (nuclear, single-parent, step), family climate (level of satisfaction with one’s family and level of negative affect in one’s family), and several indicators of current well-being (educational expectations, self-esteem, hopelessness, delinquent attitude scores, and optimism). Participant well-being did not vary by family structure. However, family climate and well-being were significantly related. Implications of the study’s findings are discussed. Keywords Family process Family structure Family climate Adolescent well-being Family policy Family affect
Introduction Patterns of family structure have undergone significant changes in the United States over the past several decades, with the most notable of these changes being the substantial increase in the proportion of children growing up in single-parent families (Parke 2003). According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2011), 27.2% of American children under the age of 18 lived with one parent in 2007, a stark contrast to the roughly 9.1% of American children who lived in single-parent families in 1960 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004). As a result of research suggesting that children experience better outcomes when raised by two biological parents (for example, see McLanahan and Sandefur 1994), this dramatic increase in singleparent families has generated considerable concern among many individuals T. M. Phillips (&) School of Human Sciences, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, USA e-mail: [email protected]
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interested in children’s well-being (Parke 2003). Waite (1998) has even gone so far as to allude to this trend as ‘‘troubling.’’ Unfortunately, it appears that many researchers investigating the relationship between family structure and child and adolescent outcomes have painted with too broad a brush, overlooking a key piece of information: Most children and adolescents who grow up in single-parent homes do not experience major problems and turn out just fine (Parke 2003). This oversight is not surprising given that most studies of single-parent families seem to be guided by a deficit model that focuses on problems, risks, and vulnerabilities while neglecting the potential strengths, capabilities, and positive characteristics of such families (Ford-Gilboe 2000). The fact that most children and adolescents raised by single parents do not experience serious problems or negative outcomes casts doubt on the wisdom of attempts to explain child and adolescent outcomes primarily as a function of family structure or composition. Interestingly, many of the studies that have found differ
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