Parent-adolescent relationship and a meaningful future perception in adolescence

Abstract

The way adolescents project themselves in the future is crucial to their positive development. Possible selves (PSs) are the self-knowledge of our potential and our future. These self-perceptions are associated to many important outcomes in adolescence. Particularly, they are linked with identity development. Another important issue for identity formation is the development of a sense of purpose in life (PL). PL is a stable and generalized intention to achieve something that is meaningful to the self and that, at the same time, has consequences for the world beyond the self. PSs and PL are social constructions and parents are of particular importance in PSs and PL development. Nonetheless, there is a lack of research that studies the associations between the parent-child relationships and the PSs and PL. Particularly, communication with parents and parental promotion of challenges are features that should be studied deeply. This research aim is to study the relationship between adolescents’ PSs and PL with parents-adolescent’s relationship. Participants were adolescents (n = 194) of both sexes (female = 61.9%) from private and catholic highschools from Argentina (age, M = 15.35, SD = 1.49). They completed the Parental Promotion of Challenges Scale, Parent-adolescent Communication Inventory, and the Possible Selves Scale for Adolescents, and the Revised Youth Purpose Survey. The relationships between adolescents’ PSs and PL, and communication and parental promotion of challenges were studied using Pearson’s correlations and linear regressions. Results show that both communication and parental promotion of challenges predict adolescents’ PSs in different domains, and the seeking and finding PL.