Family Climate and Social Adaptation of Adolescents in Community Samples: A Systematic Review

The family plays an important role in adolescents’ social development. Yet there is little information about the impact of family climate on adolescents’ social adaptation, and the term “family climate” is seldom clearly defined and is usually related to other concepts, such as family systems or family environments. To understand the core of family climate, this study conducted a systematic review to analyze research about family climate associated with adolescents’ social adaptation in community samples. A search of empirical research published over the last 20 years identified 12 relevant studies. The studies revealed that family climate can mainly be described in terms of cohesion, conflict, organization, adaptability, and expressiveness. Family climate was shown to be a good predictor of both problem-solving skills and violence in relationships and exhibited further associations with other aspects of social adaptation. This review revealed a need for more systematic and longitudinal research on family climate in community samples.