Early adolescence is the period in which self-identity may be challenged or reconsolidated by puberty onset, increasing importance of peer relationships and increasing conflicts between parents and children. Obviously, parents and peer have direct impacts on children’s development (Bronfenbrenner, 1992) and it is important to take parenting and peer relations into account when investigating children self-identity development and psychological wellbeing.
Previous research has shown that parenting was positively related self-concept and involvement in peer relations (Dekovic & Meeus, 1997), and parenting and friendship quality had the longitudinal effect on internalizing symptoms in early adolescents (Gaertner, Fite, & Colder, 2010). Also, having a clear self-concept was positively associated with adolescents’ interpersonal relationships such as child-parent relationship and friendship quality (Becht et al., 2017) and mental well-being (e.g., Cross, Gore, & Morris). However, it is currently less well understood how parenting influence the trajectories of self-concept development, peer relations and mental well-being in adolescence and how parenting in early childhood and self-concept and peer relations in early adolescence together contribute mental well-being in late adolescence. Also, though parenting, self and social relationship are important to development, there is few evidences to show which stage, childhood or adolescence contributes more to child development.