Happy Families? The association between

parental life satisfaction and older children’s self-esteem

Debbie HartInstitute of Social and Economic

ResearchUniversity of Essex

Questions guiding research

• What factors are associated with youth self –esteem?

• Does the wellbeing of parents have an effect on youth self-esteem?

• Do relationships differ according to mother/father, sons/daughters?

• Does a relationship remain when a variety of other youth characteristics are taken into account?

Relevant literature• ‘Emotional contagion’ – transference of emotion

between individuals

• Evidence of emotional contagion between: - college roommates (Anderson,2003)- work colleagues (Totterdell et al, 1998)- married couples (Saxbe and Repetti, 2010)

- Short time period- Small samples- Diary methods

• Hannington et al (2010) found that parental depressive symptoms were associated with increased temperament problems in infants at follow up.

• Maternal depression has also been associated with insecure attachment (Downey and Coyne 1990, Martins and Gaffman 2000)

• Focus on more clinical problems• Focus predominantly on infants

Contagion hypothesis

Low parental life satisfaction

Observant learning Changes to parent-child relationship

More family conflict

Risks to self-esteem of child

Common stressor hypothesis

Common family stressor

Low parental satisfaction Low youth self esteem

• Can control for some family stressors• Would still suggest child’s vulnerability to family stress• Parent’s coping mechanisms may still impact upon

child

Reverse causation hypothesis

Low youth self esteem

Low parental life satisfaction

• Can introduce a lagged version of parental life satisfaction

• Control for lagged youth self esteem

Data and Measures• British Household Panel Survey, waves 4-17• Youth questionnaire, 11-15 year olds• Youth’s data matched with their parent’s data on

adult questionnaire

• Parental life satisfaction measure:• “How dissatisfied or satisfied are you with your life

overall?”• 1-7 scale, converted to dummy, low/high life

satisfaction

• Youth self-esteem measure:

• “Please say whether you strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree that the following statements apply to yourself.– I feel I have a number of good qualities– I certainly feel useless at times– I am a likeable person– I am inclined to feel I am a failure– At times I feel I am no good at all

• 1-16 scale

OLS Regression – basic model

Mum low life satisfaction t-1 -0.720 ***

Dad low life satisfaction t-1 -0.398 **

N 3861

R squared 0.01

OLS Regression – with parental controls

Mum low satisfaction t-1 -0.705 * **

Dad low satisfaction t-1 -0.296Mum poorer health status -0.101 **

Dad poorer health status -0.328

Mum employed 0.401 **

Dad employed 0.033

Mum has degree 0.085

Dad has degree 0.079

N 2716

R squared 0.02

OLS Regression – full modelMum low satisfaction t-1 -0.460 ** Dad low satisfaction t-1 -0.098Mum poorer health status -0.116

Dad poorer health status -0.147

Mum employed 0.213 **

Dad employed 0.218

Mum has degree 0.113

Dad has degree 0.076

Youth self esteem t-1 0.431 ***

Age -0.040

Number of siblings 0.011

Female youth -0.634 ***Youth’s number of friends 0.026 **

Youth worries about bullying -0.409***

Youth happy at school 0.306 ***

Talks to mum about important things 0.262 **Talks to Dad about important things 0.070 **N 2462

R squared 0.36

Male youths Female youthsMum low satisfaction t-1 -0.548 ** -0.393**Dad low satisfaction t-1 -0.029 -0.155Mum poorer health status -0.034 0.222

Dad poorer health status -0.017 0.259

Mum employed 0.265 * 0.269

Dad employed 0.107 0.268

Mum has degree 0.238 0.015

Dad has degree 0.238 0.104

Youth self esteem t-1 0.413 *** 0.444 ***

Age -0.027 -0.041

Number of siblings 0.047 -0.022

Youth’s number of friends 0.022 ** 0.027 **Youth worries about bullying -0.416 *** -0.399***Youth happy at school 0.238 *** 0.385***

Talks to mum about important things 0.189 ** 0.306***

Talks to Dad about important things 0.080 0.095N 1266 1196

R squared 0.31 0.37

Summary of findings• Low maternal life satisfaction in the previous observation

associated with declined youth self-esteem in current observation

• Effect remains when a range of control variables are included in the model, although becomes smaller

• Paternal life satisfaction not related once additional controls added to model

• Association exists for both male and female youths

• Effect may be direct or related to a common stressor

• Effect not restricted to younger children

Conclusions and further directions• Within the family, frequent interactions take place and

considerable time is often spent together, it may therefore be the case that family member’s own states of wellbeing may influence each other’s.

• The importance of the family context for the child and their vulnerability to parental stress is suggested

• Support to parents will also likely benefit their child’s self-esteem

• Impact of different family types• Further work on causal relationships• Examine the role of specific family stressors• Alternative measures

Thank-you for listening

Debbie Hartdhart@essex.ac.uk