The role of family in children's well-being: why are teenagers from intact families more satisfied with life?

Context and relevance. Children growing up in intact families with two biological parents typically demonstrate somewhat higher rates of well-being and success compared to children from single-parent and blended families. However, little is known about the psychological causes and mechanisms of this relationship and ways to compensate for this social developmental situation.
Objective. To examine the role of satisfaction with family relationships as a mediator of the influence of family structure on various components of well-being.
Hypothesis. 1) Satisfaction with family relationships, life, self, and indicators of school well-being is higher among adolescents from intact families, compared with adolescents from single-parent families and blended families, 2) satisfaction with family relationships mediates the influence of family structure on the subjective well-being of adolescents.
Methods and materials. Moscow schools’ students in grades 5–11 (N = 2844, M = 13,31; SD = 2,06). To assess well-being, we used Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale and a non-verbal scale for assessing attitudes towards life and school.
Results. Using ANOVA, we found that family structure (type) exhibits weak but significant effects on life satisfaction among adolescents, regardless of their gender and age. Furthermore, adolescents from intact families are significantly more satisfied with their families and relationships than those from single-parent and blended families. Structural modeling demonstrated that adolescent psychological well-being depends not on the family structure per se, but on their satisfaction with it, which in turn predicts attitudes to life, self, friends, and school.
Conclusions. Satisfaction with family relationships acts as a mediator, fully mediating the influence of family structure on adolescent psychological well-being. The practical implications of this study are that developing psychological training for parents aimed at improving the quality of relationships with adolescents, taking into account the specific social developmental context inherent to this type of family, can mitigate the risks of adverse development for children growing up in single-parent and blended families.

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