A bright future ahead? Parenting, personality, and problems in childhood and adolescence as predictors of later (mal)adaptive functioning

How do children grow up to be happy, healthy, and thriving adults? The aim of this dissertation was to examine the extent to which individual and contextual factors are related to (mal)adaptive functioning from childhood into emerging adulthood. Externalizing problems and their co-occurrence with internalizing problems, personality development, and parent-adolescent conflict were related with both maladaptive and adaptive functioning later in life. This highlights the importance of approaching well-being through maladaptive (i.e. depression) and adaptive (i.e. happiness) states. Taken together, findings show that even earlier in life, we can see signs of a bright future ahead. Recommendations for research and practice include adopting a maladaptive and adaptive approach by focusing on problems ánd strengths in children, caregivers and families.