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Parenting and Child/Adolescent Development: Current Updates and Global Perspectives (2nd Edition)

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Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Family dynamics, parenting practices, and parent/caregiver–child relationships have a formative effect and long-term implications for children’s health, well-being, and socioemotional, cognitive, and neurobiological development, including in the later stages of life. Family connectedness, communication, and relationships with parents and family members also provide important role models and contribute to the development of identity and the adoption of skills and behaviours in adolescence. This Special Issue takes a multidisciplinary stance and aims to collect theoretical, methodological, and empirical papers on topics related to the following: the influence of family type, structure, and dynamics; the gendered aspect of parenting and care for children and adolescents, i.e. the role of mothers’ and fathers’ involvement and parenting practices, and their implications for child/adolescent development, health, and well-being; the involvement of extended family members in care for children and adolescents; the role that cultural practices of parenting play in different social contexts; and the role of the institutional and policy contexts, reflected in early-childhood education and care (ECEC) policies, family and youth policies, and services for families, children, and adolescents.

Considering the success and popularity of the Special Issue, ‘Parenting and Child/Adolescent Development: Current Updates and Global Perspectives’, previously published in the journal Children (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/children/special_issues/7839X9JHQQ), we now release a Second Edition that aims to address this topic by inviting scholars to their share findings, perspectives, and approaches in parenting and care for children and adolescents. We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Elitsa Dimitrova
Prof. Dr. Apolinaras Zaborskis
Guest Editors

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Children is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

child development
adolescent development
health, well-being, and health behaviour of children and adolescents
family type, structure, and family dynamics
parent–child/adolescent relationships
parenting practices and involvement in care for children and adolescents
gendered aspects of parenting and care for children and adolescents
generational aspects of care for children and adolescents
early-childhood education and care (ECEC) policies, and family and youth policies
services for families, children, and adolescents

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16 pages, 629 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Family Support, Communication with Parents, and Adolescent Health Risk Behaviour: A Case of HBSC Study from Bulgaria and Lithuania

by Elitsa Dimitrova and Apolinaras Zaborskis

Children 2025, 12(5), 654; https://doi.org/10.3390/children12050654 - 19 May 2025

Viewed by 383

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to explore the association between adolescents’ health risk behaviours (excessive use of alcohol, (e)cigarette smoking, cannabis use) and familial factors. A special objective of this study was to compare findings between Bulgarian and Lithuanian adolescents aged 15 years. Material and Methods: National samples from the WHO Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey in 2021/2022 were analysed. The focus was on adolescents aged 15 (n = 64,349), including those from Bulgaria (n = 793) and Lithuania (n = 1137). The set of outcome variables included drunkenness, smoked cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and used cannabis (all variables were measured during the last 30 days); their indicators were child’s talking separately to their father and separately to their mother, as well as the four-item family support scale. All variables were dichotomised and their associations were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling with a WLSMV estimator. Results: In the total sample, the prevalence of drunkenness was 14.9%, cigarette smoking at 12.6%, e-cigarette smoking at 18.4%, and cannabis use at 5.9%; while in Bulgaria, in contrast to Lithuania, these behaviours were much more prevalent, at 27.0%, 29.9%, 29.8%, and 11.1%, respectively. The use of substances was significantly associated with selected familial factors, which were more pronounced among girls than boys in most subsamples. Low family support showed the strongest association with increased substance use (in the total sample, regression weight B varied from 0.231 to 0.382). Adolescents’ difficulty in talking to mother was more pronounced (B = 0.123 to 0.204) than difficulty in talking to their father (B = 0.058 to 0.140). Comparison of data samples from Bulgaria and Lithuania showed stronger relationships in Bulgarian adolescents compared to other countries, which are more pronounced among boys. In addition, among Bulgarian adolescents, easy communication with their father had an inverse association (increasing prevalence) with cannabis use. Conclusions: Adolescent health risk behaviours, such as use of substances, are associated with familial factors, including parent–teen communication and family support. Generally, these associations are more pronounced among girls than boys, and more evident among Bulgarian adolescents than their Lithuanian counterparts. Identifying environmental factors in families helps to plan interventions to prevent development of multiple health risk behaviours in adolescents. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Parenting and Child/Adolescent Development: Current Updates and Global Perspectives (2nd Edition))

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