The parental and family correlates of the child’s subjective well-being (SWB)

Many studies and existing theories tried to establish predictors of the child’s subjective well-being (SWB) that refer to their parents or family as a unit. Although some studies have shed light on these associations, mixed results are still prevalent in this research field. This study aimed to explore the relationship between various indicators of family well-being and child’s SWB within the theoretical framework of the Theory of Change (Newland, 2015). More precisely, it tested whether measures of family self-sufficiency (education, income, and employment), maternal and paternal physical health and SWB predict the child’s SWB. Data from 843 children and both of their parents were collected via paper-pen method. All children were pupils at several Croatian primary schools, ranging from third to sixth grade, who live with both of their parents. A model that included all predictors showed good fit indices, but overall explained only 9.3% of the variance in the criteria. Within this model, only factors related to mothers, namely their SWB and education emerged as positive predictors of the child’s SWB. Mother’s health was found to be a weak, negative predictor of the child’s SWB, but the link was explained by shared variance between mother’s health and SWB (suppressor effect). It was also tested whether the model’s predictions change significantly based on child’s age and gender – the multigroup analysis yielded similar results, the predictions of the model do not change with respect to two age groups age and gender. The results are partially in concordance with existing research, but only marginally with the Theory of Change.