Poster #99 - Positive Family Relationships During Adolescence, Temperament, and Health in Middle Adulthood: A 20-year Longitudinal Study

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

The link between risky family environments and poor health outcomes is well-established (Repetti, et al., 2002). In contrast, the impact of positive family characteristics on youth health remains under-examined, with prospective, longitudinal studies even more rare (Chen et al., 2017). Further, the influence of individual child characteristics such as temperament in predicting global health is largely unexplored, and with temperament’s robust connection to family factors (Kiff et al., 2011), it is important to understand their combined effects on youths’ health. In this study, we investigate the long-term association between positive family relationships and temperament assessed during adolescence and global physical and mental health when youth reach middle adulthood.

Drawing from both a family systems perspective (Minuchin, 1974) and a positive psychology framework (Bensen et al., 2006), and building on previous evidence that temperament characteristics such as youths’ ability to adapt to environmental changes and flexibly respond to novel people/situations are associated with less maladjustment (Sanson et al., 2004), we hypothesize that PFR will relate positively to adolescent adaptability, and that PFR and adolescent adaptability will each predict greater health in adulthood. We test associations via both intra- and cross-informant models.

Data were from the Fullerton Longitudinal Study (FLS), a long-term, ongoing investigation of 130 children and their families beginning when children were age 1 through middle adulthood (age 38). Positive family relationships (PFR; i.e., how well family members get along and support each other) were measured using independent maternal and child reports of the PFR scale (Preston et al., 2015) during annual assessments from ages 14, 15, and 16. Adolescent adaptability/flexibility was measured separately by mothers and youth using Dimensions of Temperament Survey-Revised (DOTS-R; Windle & Lerner, 1986) at ages 14 and 16. When youth were age 38 years, they completed the PROMIS Scale (Hays et al., 2009) assessing global physical (e.g., pain, fatigue, ability to participate in physical activities including walking, stair-climbing) and mental health symptoms (e.g., mood, cognition, anxiety, depression).

Using structural equation modeling, we tested intra-informant and cross-informant models of links between PFR, adolescent adaptability, and global health. Results indicated that for both informants, PFR and adaptable temperament during adolescence were significantly and positively related (Figure 1). In the cross-informant model, mothers’ perceptions of PFR and adolescents’ adaptability each predicted youths’ reports of greater global health in middle adulthood, whereas in the intra-informant model, only adolescents’ reports of their adaptability predicted better physical and mental health as adults.

Our findings demonstrate that adolescents who were flexible and quick to adapt also experienced more positive, supportive family relationships during adolescence, whether assessed by youth or their mothers. Higher levels of adaptability (reported by youth and mothers) and PFR (reported by mothers) predicted greater physical and mental health for youth when they reached age 38. Our data suggest that supportive family relationships during adolescence, in combination with adolescents’ ability to be flexible, furnish a foundation for subsequent health in adulthood, over two decades later. Implications for promoting adolescent adaptability and positive family interactions to foster long-term health are discussed.

Authors

• Michelle C. Ramos, California State University, Fullerton
  Presenting Author

• Diana Wright Guerin, California State University, Fullerton
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kathleen S. J. Preston, California State University, Fullerton
  Non-Presenting Author

• Allen W. Gottfried, Fullerton Longitudinal Study
  Non-Presenting Author