Famiglia delle regole e famiglia degli affetti: quali conseguenze su benessere e disagio nei figli adolescenti?

[Autom. eng. transl.] Effective family education implies that parents raise their children through attitudes and behaviors related both to the affective aspect (warmth, support, etc.) and to the ethological and informative aspect (compliance with the rules, legitimation, etc.). However, the literature underlines the current imbalance between affective and ethical aspects, in which the latter are underestimated (Pietropolli Charmet, 2012; Scabini and Cigoli, 2000). The present work intends to investigate: a) if the ethical-normative pole and the affective pole perceived by adolescents can affect their development and b) analyze the relationship between types of relationship between parents and children and indicators of well-being and discomfort. A 279 adolescents from Northern Italy (Range 15-19 years, 46.9% males) were given a self-report questionnaire containing scales aimed at detecting the ethical-regulatory and affective poles and some variables of discomfort and well-being such as depression, self-esteem, optimism, life satisfaction, irritability. Four types of parent-child relationships have been created based on the combinations of adolescent perceptions regarding the ethical-normative and affective pole (high in both, low in both, high ethical-normative and low affective and vice versa). The ANOVA and the post-hoc show how all the indicator variables of well-being (self-esteem, optimism, life satisfaction) are more present in the types in which adolescents perceive high levels of both dimensions, while those related to malaise (irritability and depression ) are less present. On the contrary, families in which adolescents perceive low levels of affective and ethical are those in which adolescents show greater difficulties: they possess lower levels of self-esteem, optimism, life satisfaction and report greater problems of depression and irritability. Families in which adolescents perceive that only one of the two dimensions is given importance produce effects that are placed in an intermediate path compared to the first two.