The connection between parents and their teenage children is vital for positive youth growth. This research investigates how different parenting approaches—specifically parental support, parental knowledge, and setting rules—relate to psychosomatic complaints during both middle and late adolescence. Data came from a large Swedish national cohort (n = 3,678). Teenagers answered self-report questionnaires first in 2017 (around 15–16 years old) and then again in 2019 (around 17–18 years old).
Of the parenting practices examined, parental support showed the strongest and most reliable negative cross-sectional links with psychosomatic complaints in both middle and late adolescence. Moreover, growing levels of parental support and parental knowledge were connected to falling levels of psychosomatic complaints among the adolescents. However, the levels of parental support and knowledge present at age 15–16 years did not forecast psychosomatic complaints two years later at age 17–18 years. The findings underscore the need for parents to remain actively involved throughout middle and late adolescence, with particular emphasis on providing steady, reliable support.
