Warmth, competence, and wellbeing: The relationship between parental support, needs satisfaction, and interpersonal sensitivity in Italian emerging adults

In the Italian context, parental bonding has great relevance in promoting satisfaction of emerging adults’ psychological needs, impacting their wellbeing, also in terms of interpersonal sensitivity. Aims: to analyse, in 497 emerging adults: the direct influence of maternal and paternal bonding on young interpersonal sensitivity and life satisfaction; indirect influence, mediated by the influence of the parents–offspring relationship on the need for relatedness, autonomy, and competence. SEM analysis showed that parental bonding characterized by high warmth and low over-protection could help satisfaction of all three needs; only paternal bonding is directly and positively related with life satisfaction and negatively with interpersonal sensitivity; satisfaction of needs could significantly improve life satisfaction. Implications are discussed in the article.