Surpluses and Deficits in Parental Support During Emerging Adulthood: An Examination of Parent-Dhild Dyads

• In Event: HIGH-DENSITY: Communicating in and About Families

Abstract

The current study employed a social support gaps approach to examine impacts of parental support to emerging adults in college. Specifically, based on data collected from a sample of parent-child dyads (N = 156), this study investigated whether the discrepancies between the amounts of support that college emerging adults received from their parents and what they actually desired would be associated with the parent-child dyads’ relationship satisfaction and both person’s subjective well-being. Findings showed that support deficits (i.e. receiving less support than what was desired) were negatively associated with child-reported and parent-reported relationship satisfaction and children’s subjective well-being through children’s perceptions of parental support quality. In addition, surpluses in emotional and esteem support were directly and negatively associated with child-reported relationship satisfaction. Overall, this study provided support for the support gaps perspective and extended this perspective by analyzing reports of parent-child dyads.

Author

• Ningxin Wang, Bloomsburg U of Pennsylvania