Activities and relationships with parents as key ecological assets that encourage personal positive youth development

Abstract

Scientific literature has shown contextual factors thatpredict youth development, and family variables are themost important ones. In this study, we propose a modelthat explains the relation between family variables (re-lationship with parents and family activities) and PersonalPositive Youth Development (assessed through Life sa-tisfaction, Interiority, and Self‐control), across differentcultures. We recruited 2867 adolescents aged 12–18 years(52% female) from three countries: Spain, Mexico, andPeru. They completed an anonymous questionnaire. Werun exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, andstructural equation modelling, testing for invariance acrosscountries and sexes. In all subsamples, positive family re-lationships were associated with adolescents' Life Sa-tisfaction. In addition, time invested on family activities wasassociated with Interiority and with Self‐control. However,some differences across cultures and sex were found in thespecific associations. Theoretical and practical implicationsare discussed regarding how to improve adolescent devel-opment through family life