Abstract
Although children’s life satisfaction is known to be closely linked to family dysfunction, the nature and magnitude of longitudinal associations between family dysfunction and children’s life satisfaction remain to be clarified. This 12-month longitudinal study examined the relations among family dysfunction, loneliness and life satisfaction in children using a longitudinal mediation model. A total of 926 children of ages 8 to 11 (423 males, Mage = 9.52 years) completed self-report questionnaires assessing family dysfunction, loneliness, and life satisfaction on three occasions at 6-month intervals. After sex, grade, parental education levels, and family economic status were included as covariates, the results showed that family dysfunction negatively predicted later life satisfaction. Moreover, loneliness at Time 2 completely mediated the relation between family dysfunction at Time 1 and life satisfaction at Time 3. However, life satisfaction did not predict subsequent loneliness and family dysfunction. The findings yield implications for interventions to promote children’s life satisfaction.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by Humanities Social Sciences Research Planning Foundation from Ministry of Education, 2015 (No. 15YJA190003), “12th Five-Year” Plan of Philosophy and Social Science Development in Guangdong Province, 2015 (No. GDCXL01), the MOE Project of Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at Universities, 2016 (No.16JJD190002), and “13th Five-Year” Plan of Philosophy and Social Science Development in Guangzhou, 2018 (No. 2018GZGJ22). This work was also supported by the Postgraduate Research and Innovation Fund from South China Normal University, and the Postgraduate Research and Innovation Fund from School of Psychology South China Normal University.
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Nie, Q., Tian, L. & Huebner, E.S. Relations among Family Dysfunction, Loneliness and Life Satisfaction in Chinese Children: a Longitudinal Mediation Model. Child Ind Res 13, 839–862 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-019-09650-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-019-09650-6