THE FAMILY'S ROLE IN ADOLESCENT WELL-BEING

IOANA STOICA
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences,
Department of Psychology

Abstract

This article is about well-being in adolescents who comes from organized families
where parents are interested in the education and development of their children. The
objectives of this study were to identify if there is any significant difference between girls
and boys in terms of variations of well-being and the second objective is to identify whether
there is any connection between well-being and the anxiety scores obtained in the tests.
Method: Subjects are both girls and boys aged between 18 and 21 years. They come from
families with both parents living in urban areas. Random selection method was simple.
Instruments: The well-being questionnaire (Stoica, 2011) and anxiety scale (Stoica, 2011)
adaptted form Cattele anxiety scale. Instructions were noted on the sheet, so each subject
could read the instructions for himself: they had to choose the answer that suits them on a
scale from 1 to 5.Variables investigated were well-being and anxiety. The results show that
both boys and girls have approximately the same well-being score, so there are not
significant differences between the two groups. Regarding the correlation between well-
being and anxiety, it seems they influence each other, a high level of well-being will lead to
low anxiety (p< 0.001).

Keywords: anxiety level, child well-being, stress perception, role of family.

1. INTRODUCTION

The increased interest of researchers in the state of children's, well-being and

quality of life, has led to further development of the methods of measurement and
assessment of the state that they feel in different situations. So far, measurements
were made on infant mortality, family status, school enrollment, but with the
evolution of society many factors have changed and methods used till now have
become outdated and are becoming less and less relevant.
Those efforts to measure and monitor children’s well-being have grown in
recent years, evident in the growing scholarly interest; in joint projects by
government, nongovernment, and academic institutes.

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 1.1. WELL-BEING AND STRESS IN TEENAGERS

Regarding the ways of expression there are many words that indicate how we
feel. There are two types of terms for describing how we feel: one of them are
concise and people describe concretely and punctual what they feel (I'm sad
because ..., I'm angry ..., I'm glad for ...), the other are global terms that describe
their usual life (quality of life, well-being). Sometimes people are formal, and if
you ask them how do they do, they will give general answers such as: good but can
be better, I'm happy but not like on other occasions, thereby avoiding answers that
are too personal about the private life.
The term quality of life has extensive use and can be used for all human
beings, so we talk about quality of life for both animals and humans. Ecologists
agree with this idea, support and promote it because they believe that it is very
important for humanity to have the planet's endangered species protected by
written rules.
The social system is reflected by a number of diversified factors and the terms
that are used to characterize these elements are happiness and the well-being of the
nation. Because of the ambiguity of terminology used, propagandists use concepts
in desired direction, as they rely on confusion between individual interests with
those of society to achieve their objectives.
According to Ben-Arieh (2007), „numerous efforts have been made to define
the concept of child well-being in the context of child indicators. Much of these
efforts are rooted in Western culture in developed countries“. It is important to
associate child well-being with the developmental stage specific to his age.
Generally children set their standards to achieve following the example of a
teenager or an adult. This will help in the monitoring of the development process
easier and move to the next stage of development. Following models a child learns
to discern between what is good and what is bad for him, setting his behavior in
one direction, then strengthening it and making it stable when he reacts.
It would be wrong to clearly delineate between children's well-being and that
of adults because human well-being does not differ significantly. However,
children are more easily influenced, more malleable, so insignificant things for an
adult can have major repercussions on a child. Gaps in child welfare and poverty
can affect him for the rest of his life, that’s why it's very important to cultivate and
stimulate a healthy environment favorable to a harmonious development in
accordance with the standards required by the society.

There are many stress factors identified by various study authors, such as:
 risk of exposure
 fear of not being understood

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  concerns about situations they have not met before, but for adults are
common.
These factors constitute themselves into a stream of information that is
constantly assaulting them. However, their frustration and fear can increase and
when exposed to stress they often need specialized support.
To avoid such situations it is necessary to listen to him so the adolescent’s
comfort increases in stressful situations. We may not have all the facts, or do not
know exactly how to explain a certain situation, but what matters most is to give
him the comfort he needs, thus we can see the importance of family well-being.

1.2. THE ROLE OF FAMILY

Because of the need to ensure a better life people tend to be more involved at
work or to have two jobs and the time spent in a couple is becoming shorter.
Periods of relaxation are important for marital partners: on the one hand, leisure
together give spouses the opportunity to interact relaxed, on the other hand couples
could spend some free time separately to provide the opportunity to explore their
own needs and interests. Through this, the dependence and autonomy of spouses
may be reinforced, which will contribute to the quality of the relationship (Fisher et
al., 1983; Stinnett & Sauer, 1977).
Another characteristic of couples in well-functioning families is that both
spouses are satisfied with the expression of affect that exists between them. In well
functioning families, there is a high degree of satisfaction about the way in which
personal needs and interests are satisfied (quality of life). Other researchers have
confirmed a relation between satisfaction with quality of life and good family
functioning (Berry & Williams, 1987; Pittman & Lloyd, 1988; Spanier & Lewis,
1980).
One of the most important aspects that make a family function over the years
is communication. This is how partners know the real needs of their spouse and
will be able to satisfy them. Couple communication involves free expression
without constraints or fears about all beliefs and feelings. This is how children
learn to express themselves through words and not through behavior.
Unfortunately, most people prefer behavior (eg slam the objects) instead of verbal
expression (eg I'm upset because).
Family and child well-being is a complex and multifaceted concept so that
overall well-being is a composite or aggregate with many different dimensions and
factors. While there are numerous ways to conceptualize and differentiate the
global concept of family and child well-being, researchers note that individual
well-being is frequently differentiated into the following five dimensions or
domains: physical well-being; psychological and emotional well-being; social well-
being; cognitive and educational well-being; and economic well-being (Family and

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Child Well-Being Network 1995; Brooks-Gunn et al. 1994; Hofferth 1994;
Bentham 1970; National Commission on Children 1993; Watts and Hernandez
1982; Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families 1989; Carnegie Task
Force on Meeting the Needs of Young children 1994; Hauser et al. 1997 In recent
years, mass media has provided increasing infomercials and has promoted
increasingly more physical well-being. The individual's health is shown by a
number of factors among which we can mention: weight relative to height, drug
abuse, disease, condition or other physical skills.
Dimensions of mental health as happiness, self-esteem, security etc. represent
the psychological and emotional well-being dimension. Emotional well-being can
be described as the ability to understand the value of your feelings and to use them
to make your life more enjoyable. It requires the person to focus on identifying his
strengths and to be able to master his emotions, to enjoy life and cope with stress
and focus on important personal priorities.
Another category, social well-being, is described as how people keep in
touch, interaction with others, social skills, pro social behavior etc, and refers to the
quality of people's relationship with their social environments. There are two types
of relationships: strong (very important for a person) in which people are close and
discuss frequently, and distant (less important for the individual) represented by
numerous connections which people establish with those they encounter in broader
social spheres.
Cognitive and educational well-being refer to mental ability (to learn or to
remember), the ability to apply cognitive skills to be creative, productive and
engaged in school. Important aspects of this field are assessment of school
problems, learning difficulties, child’s interest in reading for pleasure.
Scientific literature defines another form of well-being which is focused on
financial issues and refers to income, employment, but I do not want to extend this
subject because is not related with my subject of study.

2. OBJECTIVE AND HYPOTHESES

2.1. OBJECTIVE

 Study of well-being in adolescents and the analysis of gender differences.

 Identifying the connection between well-being and anxiety in adolescents.

2.2. HYPOTHESIS

1) Adolescent boys and girls present a significant difference in terms of well-

being, girls will have lower scores than boys.
2) There is a significant correlation between well-being and anxiety, a high level
of well-being leads to a low level of anxiety.

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 3. METHOD

3.1. PARTICIPANTS

Subjects are both girls and boys aged between 18 and 21 years. They come
from families with both parents living in urban areas. Random selection method
was simple.

3.2. INSTRUMENTS

To perform this study I used two paper-pencil questionnaires. The well-being

questionnaire is designed by me and contains several dimensions that I considered
relevant after studying several researches. Instructions were noted on the sheet, so
each subject could read the instructions for himself: they had to choose the answer
that suits them on a scale from 1 to 5.
Anxiety questionnaire is also built by me. It’s based on “Cattel” questionnaire
but I rephrased some items in order to match the language and concerns of the
target group.

3.3. PROCEDURE

Testing was done over several days during a week depending on the
availability of subjects. Each evaluation had to fulfill several minimum conditions
for testing such as: low noise, suitable brightness, a place where the subjects feel
comfortable so they can focus on themselves so they can respond in accordance
with their individuality without distorting reality.

3.4. EXPERIMENT DESIGN

The variables of the study are:

 Independent variable: gender
 Dependent variables: state of well-being and anxiety
o well-being = a good or satisfactory condition of existence; a state
characterized by health, happiness, and prosperity;
o anxiety = distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or
misfortune

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 4. RESULTS

To test the first hypothesis (See Table 1) that adolescent boys and girls
present a significant difference in terms of well-being and that girls will have lower
scores than boys I applied Mann-Whitney Test.

Table 1. Mann-Whitney Test

Wellbeing
Mann-Whitney U 123.000
Wilcoxon W 276.000
Z -1.080
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .280
Exact Sig. [2*(1-tailed Sig.)]
.335(a)

The result shows that there is no statistically significant difference between

girls (18) and boys (17), U = 123, p = 0.280. Thus the first research hypothesis is
invalidated.

To test the second hypothesis of the research, according to which there is a

significant correlation between well-being and anxiety, a high level of well-being
leads to a low level of anxiety, It was applied Spearman’s nonparametric Test (See
figure 2).

Figure 2. Spearman’s Test

Variable Wellbeing Anxietate

Wellbeing (r) -
p-value -
Anxietate (r) 0.935** -
p-value 0.000
**p<0.01

The result shows that there is a significant correlation between the two
variables at the significance threshold of 0.01 two tailed. The second research
hypothesis is confirmed so we can say that when a person has a good level of well-
being, fears and negative thoughts are not overwhelming.

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 5. CONCLUSIONS

Even if girls are considered more sensitive than boys it seems that these
differences appear only at the behavioral level by the ways in which they manage
to cope with various stressful situations. It seems that girls don’t let themselves
affected by any problems, disagreements, weaknesses etc. occurring in the family
and thus are able to manage their level of well-being. If we would have studied the
coping mechanisms further we would probably notice major differences between
the two groups. Families do not react passively to stress but implement behavioral
and cognitive strategies to survive. Coping implies a process that incorporates
attempts to obtain a balance between normal family functioning and the
requirements that are set for the family.
The results show that there is a strong link between well-being and stress.
Adolescents with stressful life events experience a greater decline in behavioural
and social wellbeing. There are differences on how they react, but it seems both
boys and girls react to stressful periods and traumatic events and this is reflected
over their entire body. Early parental involvement is very important because the
consequences are serious and the accumulation of stressors has repercussions in all
areas of development and especially in increasing the likelihood of maladjustment.

The present study has several limitations, but I consider that the most obvious
were that the number of subjects was too small and the methods of test have not
been validated and calibrated on a representative population.

Received at: 03.01.2011, Accepted for publication on: 01.02.2011

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