Family Conflicts, Parent-Child Relationships and Subjective Well-being in Parent–Adolescents: An APIMeM analysis

Family dynamics play a crucial role in promoting the psychological well-being of both adolescents and their parents, yet little is known about how these influences operate within family dyads. This study utilizes the Actor-Partner Interdependence Mediation Model to explore the relationship between family conflicts, parent-child relationships (PCRs) and subjective well-being (SWB) among adolescents and parents. A sample of 5,199 parent-adolescent dyads (adolescents: M _age = 13.11, SD = 0.91; parents: M _age = 41.63, SD = 4.39) from China, was recruited. At the individual level, higher perceived family conflicts and lower quality of PCRs were associated with lower SWB in both adolescents and their parents. At the dyadic level, adolescents’ perceived family conflicts was associated with their own subjective well-being through the partial mediating role of the parental perceived quality of PCRs ( β = − 0.007 ^* , 95% CI = − 0.013, − 0.002). Further, although parental and adolescents' perceived family conflicts did not directly affect each other’s SWB, it influenced each other’s SWB indirectly through the perceived quality of PCRs. Specifically, parental perceived family conflicts indirectly influenced adolescents’ SWB through both parental and adolescents' perceived quality of PCRs (for adolescents' perceived PCRs: β = −0.036 ^* , 95% CI = − 0.067, − 0.007; for parental perceived PCRs: β = −0.039 ^*** , 95% CI = − 0.064, − 0.016). Moreover, adolescents' perceived family conflicts were found to indirectly affect parental SWB via parental perceived quality of PCRs ( β = −0.041 ^*** , 95% CI = − 0.062, − 0.021). The current study highlights the value of targeting quality of PCRs in family-based interventions aimed at enhancing SWB.