Family Environment and Psychological Well-Being Among Adolescents

Adolescence is a pivotal period between childhood and adulthood. The adolescence years are crucial for life course development because this time individuals make choices and engage in a variety of behaviors influencing rest of their lives. It is a critical period for achieving optimal progress in respect of psychological, physical, cognitive and emotional realms of life. Family is the foremost in determining psychological health of its members. The influence of other agencies is built upon the ground work furnished by the family enabling individuals to cope with normal stresses of life, work productively and make a fruitful contribution to the community. The objective of the present investigation was therefore to examine the association between family environment and psychological well-being of adolescents. A sample of N=60 adolescents (30 male; 30 female) in the age of 16 to 19 years was designed. Family Environment Scale (FES) by Bhatia and Chaddha (1993) and Psychological Well-being (PWB) Scale of Bhogle and Prakash (1995) were administered to the subjects. Results revealed a positive and significant association between psychological well-being and cohesion, expressiveness, acceptance and caring, and active recreational dimensions of family environment. Gender differences were also observed in PWB. The conclusions highlight the importance of child-parents-educators relationship for all-round growth of adolescents.