Parental psychological control, quality of family context and life satisfaction among Italian adolescents

Abstract

The aim of the study was to explore the unique and common contributions of parental psychological control and family functioning to global life satisfaction among Italian adolescents while considering the type of parental psychological control: dependencyoriented and achievement-oriented. 255 adolescents (104 boys and 151 girls) from 15 to 17 years of age (mean age = 15.98, SD = .76) completed self-report measures on perceived parental psychological control, dependency- and achievement-oriented, family functioning and global life satisfaction. Correlation analyses indicated that parental psychological control oriented to both dependency and achievement was negatively related to global life satisfaction, whereas global life satisfaction was significantly and positively related to diverse dimensions of family functioning, such as affective responsiveness and involvement, communication, and general healthy functioning. Regarding the predictive role of parental psychological control on global life satisfaction, both dependency- and achievement-oriented control predicted a low level of life satisfaction, whereas among family-functioning variables, only general healthy functioning and affective involvement predicted a high level of life satisfaction. Finally, data showed a significant effect of the interaction between achievementoriented psychological control and two dimensions of healthy family functioning in predicting life satisfaction among adolescents, with family general functioning and affective involvement moderating the negative effects of parental psychological control on life satisfaction: at higher levels of parental achievement-oriented psychological control, life satisfaction tended to be higher when family general functioning and affective involvement were high.