In my master's thesis, I explore the connection between parental divorce and adolescent subjective well-being and self-esteem. I have analysed the factors of parental divorce, such as the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship, and some indicators of the socio-economic characteristics of the family, such as parents’ level of education, as well as the sudden decline in family income after parental divorce. The study involved 301 adolescents aged 14 to 19 years, out of whom 83 had had the experience of parental divorce or separation. To assess their subjective well-being, I used the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) to assess their self-esteem. The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA) was used to assess the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship, with adolescents only completing the scale about the one parent they considered to have the best relationship with. Adolescents who had experienced parental divorce or separation also completed a short demographic questionnaire with questions about their age at the time of the divorce, their life situation, the frequency of contact with their parents and their sense of the sudden decline in family income after the divorce. Parental divorce did not prove to be a significant factor in the adolescent subjective well-being and self-esteem, since the results did not show significant differences in the subjective well-being and self-esteem between adolescents who had experienced parental divorce and the ones who had not experienced it. Additionally, neither the education of the parents nor the adolescent's experience of a sudden decline in family income after the divorce appeared to be significant factors in adolescent subjective well-being and self-esteem. On the other hand, the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship with one of the parents proved to be an important predictor of the adolescent subjective well-being as well as self-esteem. It can be concluded that the quality of the adolescent-parent relationship or in other words a sense of security in that relationship plays a more significant role in the adolescent well-being and self-esteem than the parental divorce itself.
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