Happy Childhood — Happy Life? Family Relations and Life Satisfaction

Abstract Do close family relations lead to a happy life? Is early and later conflict between and with parents linked to experiencing lower life satisfaction in adulthood? Following a life course approach, this study explores the relevance of past and present child–parent relations for lifelong happiness. The data are drawn from SwissGen, a representative study of adults living in Switzerland and their relationships with their living or deceased parents. The influences of intra- and intergenerational relationships in childhood and adulthood on life satisfaction in later life were estimated by means of ordinary least square regressions. The analyses show that children who experience conflicts between and with their parents from childhood onward also experience lower life satisfaction, whereas having affectionate and close relations with their mothers and fathers is linked to their greater happiness in adulthood. Although finances, partnership and health can reduce the effects of family relations, consistently close or burdensome child–parent relationships still play a prominent role in lifelong happiness.