The Longitudinal Effects of Parenting Styles on Adolescents’ Grit: The Mediating Role of Subjective Well-Being

Objectives: Grit, defined as the perseverance of effort and consistency of interests for long-term goals, is associated with adolescents’ positive outcomes across various developmental domains. Previous studies have shown that parenting styles are linked to adolescents’ grit; however, the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. In the current longitudinal prospective study, we examined whether adolescents’ subjective well-being mediated the relationship between parenting styles and grit.Methods: Data from Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey 2018 was used for this study (KCYPS 2018). Our sample consisted of first-year middle school students (N = 2,590). The KCYPS 2018 currently has four waves of data, and we analyzed the data from waves 1 to 3 to investigate developmental changes within the same education system. We used Mplus 8.4 to examine longitudinal mediation models based on the autoregressive cross-lagged panel model.Results: Adolescents who perceived their parents as warm, structured, and autonomy-supportive at T1 tended to report better subjective well-being at T2, which, in turn, predicted higher grit at T3. Conversely, adolescents who saw their parents as rejective, chaotic, and coercive at T1 exhibited lower levels of subjective well-being at T2, which consequently predicted lower grit at T3.Conclusion: Our findings underscore the significance of parenting styles in promoting adolescents’ subjective well-being, which, in turn, enhances their grit. Consequently, researchers and practitioners should consider developing and promoting initiatives that educate parents about positive parenting styles to foster adolescents’ happiness and grit, which can further lead to many positive outcomes into adulthood.