Effects of Father and Mother Involvement on Adolescents' Emotional Well-being and their Differences

This study aimed to address two questions: (1) how to further elucidate the effect of parental involvement on adolescents' EWB? (2) do the differences between father and mother involvement result in varying effects on adolescents' EWB? A total of 1373 middle school students completed the Inventory of Father Involvement, Inventory of Mother Involvement, Needs Satisfaction Questionnaire, Purpose in Life Subscale, and Emotional Experience of Well-being Questionnaire. The results showed that (1) fathers provided a greater level of financial support compared to mothers, whereas mothers offered higher levels of daily care, emotional support, academic support, future planning, autonomy support, controlling parenting and total involvement than fathers; (2) needs satisfaction and purpose in life mediated the effect of father involvement on EWB with a total mediating effect of 83.3%, and the effect of mother involvement on EWB with a total mediating effect of 79.6%; and (3) the effects of father and mother involvement on EWB were not significantly different. This study indicated that (1) needs satisfaction and purpose in life mediated the effect of parental involvement on adolescents' EWB; and (2) both father and mother involvement had an equally important impact on adolescents' EWB. Adolescents' EWB can be improved by helping fulfill their various needs, establish their life goals and increase father involvement.