Unemployment, parental distress and youth emotional well-being: The moderation roles of parent-youth relationship and financial deprivation

We investigated, in a sample of 112 unemployed parents of adolescents aged 10-19 years, the links between parental distress and change in youth emotional problems related to parental unemployment, and the moderation roles of parent-youth relationship and financial deprivation. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlations. Further, simple moderation, additive moderation, and moderated moderation models of regression were performed to analyze the effects of parental distress, parent-youth relationship and financial deprivation in predicting change in youth emotional problems related to parental unemployment. Results show that parental distress moderated by parent-youth relationship predicted levels of change in youth emotional problems related to parental unemployment. This study provides evidence that during job loss, parental distress is linked to youth emotional well-being and that parent-youth relationships play an important moderation role. This raises the importance of further researching parental distress impacts on youth well-being, especially during periods of high unemployment rates.

Relationship between subjective wellbeing and weight perception in children and adolescents: Gender and age differences

The relation between weight status (Body Mass Index - BMI), weight perception and subjective wellbeing remains unclear. Several studies conclude that discrepancies can be found between weight status and weight perception, among children and adolescents. The present study aims at investigating the associations between subjective wellbeing and individual characteristics, among children and adolescents. The sample included 1200 children and adolescents (51.7 % girls, aged 9 to 17). Their mean age was 12.55 years (SD = 1.61). The questionnaire was completed in school context, asking about the subjective wellbeing, use of self-regulation, eating behavior awareness/care, weight perception and sociodemographic questions such as age, gender and BMI. The study found a strong association between BMI and weight perception, although subjective wellbeing was better explained by weight perception than by BMI. Eating awareness and self-regulation also played an important role in subjective controlling for age and gender. Age and gender interfere in the relation between subjective wellbeing and other variables. The multiple regression model is more robust and explicative for girls and older children. Psychological factors related to weight, such as weight perception, self-regulation and eating awareness have a stronger explicative impact in subjective wellbeing compared to physical aspects, such as Body Mass Index. The relation between subjective wellbeing and weight is influence by age and gender.