Satisfaction with Family Life in South Africa: The Role of Socioeconomic Status

Abstract

This paper investigates the determinants of self-reported satisfaction with family life, applied to the South African context, with socioeconomic status (SES) as the main covariate and family functioning as the secondary covariate of interest. An individual-, household-, and subjective SES index is constructed via multiple correspondence analysis. Structural equation modelling (SEM) and multiplegroup SEM (MGSEM) are used to analyse the role of SES in explaining satisfaction with family life. Higher levels of SES, especially household SES and subjective SES, are related to greater satisfaction with family life. Family functioning, in terms of better family flexibility, is associated with higher satisfaction with family life. The MGSEM results indicate that the role of family flexibility in explaining satisfaction with family life is similar across SES quartiles; family flexibility is an important predictor of family-life satisfaction, regardless of SES quartile.

The diverging patterns of life satisfaction between families: A latent profile analysis in dual-earner parents with adolescents

“…In each profile, family functioning reported by each family member followed similar patterns to their reported levels of satisfaction with life and family life. These results support findings that have associated family functioning with life satisfaction (Jia et al, 2018), and with family life satisfaction (Botha et al, 2018). Family functioning and food-related life satisfaction levels also followed similar patterns; both of these variables have been separately linked in past research to family cohesion (Alderfer et al, 2007;Schnettler, Grunert, et al, 2018a, b;Schnettler, Lobos, et al, 2017a), which may be an underlying mechanism in the association between satisfaction with food-related life and the family domain.…”

“…The literature suggests two specific aspects to account for in this regard: Family functioning and satisfaction with family life (SWFaL). The construct of family functioning (Botha, Booysen, & Wouters, 2018) comprises family interactions and relationships based on conflict, cohesion, adaptability, organization, and communication (Alderfer et al, 2007). It has been reported that positive family functioning results in higher life satisfaction in adults and adolescents (Jia et al, 2018).…”

“…The second construct, SWFaL, is the person's conscious cognitive judgment of their family life based on their own subjective criteria (Zabriskie & McCormick, 2003) and it has also been positively associated with life satisfaction in adolescents and adults (Schnettler, Lobos, et al, 2017a;Schnettler, Miranda-Zapata, et al, 2017b;Schnettler et al, 2018;Terrazas-Carrillo et al, 2016). SWFaL has been also related to satisfaction in other domains such as work and finances (Botha et al, 2018;Tammelin, Malinen, Rönkä, & Verhoef, 2017), and, less intuitively, food (Schnettler, Lobos, et al, 2017a;Schnettler, Miranda-Zapata, et al, 2017b).…”

“…Studies show that these two variables have a large influence on parents' life satisfaction and their adolescent children's well-being (Dobewall et al, 2019;Ma, 2016;Pollmann-Schult, 2014;Rajani, Skianis, & Filippidis, 2019). There is also evidence of negative relationships between these two variables and satisfaction in the food (Schnettler, Grunert, et al, 2018a, b) and family (Botha et al, 2018) domains. Other research has associated a poor family economic situation with higher levels of work-family conflict (Tammelin et al, 2017).…”

Domain Satisfaction and Overall Life Satisfaction: Testing the Spillover-Crossover Model in Chilean Dual-Earner Couples

“…Family forms a key unit of society which plays a crucial role in the individual’s psychological and social development [ 49 , 50 ]. The relevant role of the family domain for well-being has been stressed by numerous studies in adult samples [ 4 , 6 , 7 , 51 ].…”