Links Between Adolescents’ Relationships With Peers, Parents, and Their Values in Three Cultural Contexts

Abstract

The study examined associations among adolescents’ perceived mother-child and father-child relationship quality (intimacy, conflict, and admiration), perceived peer acceptance, and their values (individualism and collectivism) in a sample of 795 Estonian, German, and Russian 15-year-olds. Adolescents from the three cultural contexts differed in terms of their relationships with parents and peers but were similar in valuing both individualism and collectivism highly. Individualistic values were positively linked to adolescents’ peer acceptance in individualistic cultures, whereas collectivistic values of adolescents were positively associated with the quality of their relationships with parents in all cultures. Across cultures, maternal and paternal admiration showed the strongest positive association with peer acceptance of adolescents. Among Estonian adolescents, further associations emerged: higher levels of intimacy with fathers and conflict levels in both mother-child and father-child relationship were related to adolescents’ lower peer acceptance. The results are discussed from a social-cultural perspective.