Parent-child relationship and adoptees’ psychological well-being in adolescence and emerging adulthood: Disentangling maternal and paternal contribution

This study focused on the parent-child relationship and children’s psychological well-being in families with internationally adopted adolescents and emerging adults. The study’s goal was twofold: 1) to analyze parent-child conflict, communicative openness in regards to adoption, and promotion of children’s volitional functioning, as key aspects of parent-child relationship; and 2) to measure the relative importance of each of the above-mentioned parent-child relationship aspects in predicting adoptees’ psychological well-being. In the analyses parent and child gender and child developmental stage (adolescence vs. emerging adulthood) were taken into account. Participants were 160 Italian international adoptees, aged between 15 and 24 years, who were asked to complete a self-report questionnaire. Results showed significant differences in the level of the quality of parent-child relationship according to parents’ gender, child’s gender and developmental stage. Additionally, mothers’ and fathers’ relational quality played a different role in predicting their adopted children’s well-being, also according to child’s gender and developmental stage.