Citation

Thorslund K, Alfredsson E, Axberg U. Scand. J. Psychol. 2019; 60(1): 16-25.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Scandinavian Psychological Associations, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/sjop.12498

PMID

30412930

Abstract

Parenting a child through adolescence can be a challenge for many parents; adolescents go through notable developmental, physical, and psychological changes that affect the relationships around them. Most parents find parental support during these years important. These young people's relationships with their parents are important to their mental health, but although parental support is universally available to parents of younger children, it is still scarce for parents of adolescents. The aim of this study was to explore what factors are associated with interest in universal parental support through telephone interviews and questionnaires with 223 parents of 13- to 17-year-olds. Parents' interest in parental support was linked to their own anxious mood, their lower perceived parental capacity, their perception of the child as having psychiatric problems, the parents' perception of their adolescents' openness about things and their perception of the adolescent's overall difficulties in daily life due to psychiatric symptoms. The results show that lighter forms of support such as lectures or seminars were more appealing to parents with higher social status. Offering community-based individual counseling and leader-led parent training groups therefore has the potential to reach parents with difficulties more equally, while offering support only through lectures and seminars could increase the inequality between parents in different social situations.

© 2018 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Language: en

Keywords

Universal prevention; adolescence; family services; parent training; parental engagement; parental support