Adult children traveling with parents: exploring travel conflict and parents’ subjective well-being

Abstract

Purpose Drawing on solidarity-conflict model, expectancy disconfirmation theory and bottom-up spillover theory, this study aims to explore how intergenerational conflict is linked to parents’ subjective well-being through the serial mediating effects of family intimacy and travel satisfaction, self-efficacy and travel satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach Based on a survey of 411 senior parents who have family travel experience, a structural equation modeling was performed to test the hypotheses. Findings This study demonstrated the negative impacts of intergenerational conflict on parents’ travel satisfaction and subjective well-being and further reveals two serial mediators through individual level and family level (i.e. self-efficacy → travel satisfaction; family intimacy → travel satisfaction). Practical implications The findings of this research generate valuable practical implications for family members and destination organizations. Adult children should consider different generations’ needs to choose tourism products, help parents reduce tension and negative emotions about unusual environments and build confidence. The destination organizations need to design family interaction projects with a sense of rituals to enhance family intimacy. Originality/value This study focusing on the intergenerational conflict of adult children traveling with parents, empirically examines the negative impacts of intergenerational conflict on parents’ subjective well-being, uncovers the detrimental effects of family travel; it breaks the stereotype that family travel is always full of joy, enriching research on intergenerational relationships and family travel.

Family tourists’ emotional responses at world heritage sites (WHSs): the effects of existential authenticity and interpersonal interaction

“…Moreover, measurement items were also significantly loaded to latent variable ( p < 0.001) (Table 1). The heterotrait–monotrait ratios were below 0.80 (Hu et al , 2022). The reliability of each construct ranged from 0.79 to 0.95, which demonstrated relatively high reliability compared to the suggested cut-off point of 0.70 (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994).…”

“…While prior studies have revealed that family tourists are likely to have emotional, experiential and high-quality tourism experiences (Backer and King, 2016; Chen et al , 2022; Hu et al , 2022), how family tourists’ emotional responses are formed at WHSs is not yet sufficiently understood (Chen et al , 2022). By investigating emotional responses with its antecedents and moderating relationships, the study contributes to literature by extending CAT into the context of family tourism at WHSs, which theoretically adds to the existing knowledge of family tourism, and practically provides managerial and marketing implications for WHSs tourism practitioners.…”

The Impact and Spatial Spillover Effects of Tourism Development on Urban Welfare: Empirical Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta in China

“…For a considerable period, the discussion surrounding the connection between tourism and welfare has primarily focused on the micro-level analysis of whether tourists can derive happiness from their travel experiences. This includes the research on the disparities between various types of tourism activities in generating blissful tourism experiences [10][11][12], the pathways to enhancing blissful tourism for tourism consumer groups with distinct characteristics [13][14][15], and the mechanism behind generating tourism happiness experiences [2,16,17]. Under the wave of the massification and popularization of tourism activities, the studies above have laid a solid foundation for the rational cognition of whether tourism possesses the attributes of a happiness industry.…”