Teens from happy families have more friends as adults

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-01-27 03:00

International

CC-0. Story by Dr Joe Milton, Australian Science Media Centre

A US study of 7,018 Americans found those who felt strong connections to their families as teens had higher levels of social connection up to two decades later. The findings are based on data collected at three timepoints - around age 16, around age 28, and around age 37. At each point, participants were quizzed about their social connections, and their relationship with their parents and their partners. Analysing the results, the researchers found high levels of social connection were more than twice as common among adults who reported the highest levels of family connection as adolescents, compared with those who reported the lowest level (39.5%vs 16.1%). The findings suggest being part of safe, stable, and nurturing families during adolescence could help avoid loneliness and social isolation later in life, the authors conclude.

News release

From: JAMA

Family Connection in Adolescence and Social Connection in Adulthood

About The Study: In this cohort study, among U.S. adolescents, those reporting higher family connection had higher levels of social connection as adults up to 2 decades later. These findings suggest that increasing family connection during adolescence may help reduce the burden of adult social disconnection.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Pediatrics

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Bassett Medical Center, USA

Funder: This research uses data from Add Health, funded by grant P01 HD31921 (Kathleen Mullan Harris) from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Add Health is currently directed by Robert A. Hummer and funded by the National Institute on Aging cooperative agreements U01 AG071448 (Robert A. Hummer) and U01 AG071450 (Allison E. Aiello and Robert A. Hummer) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Add Health was designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. To conduct the analyses reported in this manuscript, no external funding support was received from grant P01 HD31921 or any other source.

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