Adolescents’ experiences of parental employment and parenting: connections to adolescents’ well-being

This paper examines whether the relationship between parental work and adolescents’ well-being would be mediated through parenting behaviour. The primary focus was on the experiences of adolescents. Questionnaire-based data from families (both parents and one children, n=77) and adolescents (n=126) were collected in Finland in 2000 and 2001, respectively. The adolescents were on average 14 years old. Results showed that the relationships between parents’ negative work experiences and adolescents’ depression (all perceived by adolescents) were partially mediated by adolescents’ experience of lessened autonomy granting in parenting and increased conflicts between parents and adolescents. In addition, the relations between fathers’ negative work experiences and adolescents’ negative attitude regarding school (all reported by adolescents) were mediated by adolescents’ perceptions of increased conflicts between fathers and adolescents.