The Role of the Nurturant Family Environment During Adolescence in Predicting Young Adult Positive Development

Nurturing family environments (NFEs) are theorised to underpin positive development, with most studies investigating NFEs in childhood. Comparatively limited research has explored the role of NFEs during adolescence in promoting positive development during emerging adulthood. We used longitudinal data from The Australian Temperament Project ( n = 1,377) to: (1) identify classes of NFEs at ages 17–18 years; and, (2) examine associations between adolescent NFE classes and positive development across emerging adulthood (19–20, 23–24, and 27–28 years). Four nurturance classes were identified at baseline: high (36.59%), normative (35.97%), low (16.39%), and normative with inter-parental relational problems (11.05%). Adolescents in the high nurturance class had higher positive development in emerging adulthood compared to all other classes, whilst the normative class had higher positive development compared to the low and normative with inter-parental relational problems classes. These findings highlight important prognostic associations between adolescent NFEs and positive development in emerging adulthood, with implications for family-based interventions.