Graduate Program

Clinical Psychology

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

2008

Thesis Director

Anu Sharma

Thesis Committee Member

Ronan Bernas

Thesis Committee Member

Marjorie Hanft-Martone

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between family structure and life satisfaction in young adults. Additionally, the study examined explanatory style, parenting style, family cohesion, family satisfaction, and the presence of siblings as potential moderating factors between divergent family structures and levels of life satisfaction in young adults. Ninety male and 121 female university students completed a demographic survey, the Parental Authority Questionnaire, the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales IV, the Attribution Style Questionnaire, the Family Satisfaction Scale, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. As anticipated, results indicated that participants who grew up in single parent and step-family homes, when viewed as a homogeneous group, displayed lower levels of life satisfaction than those who came from intact homes; However, when analyzed as independent groups, those participants who grew up in single parent households showed no significant difference in their levels of life satisfaction as young adults from those participants who were raised in intact homes. Another unanticipated finding was that participants who grew up in intact homes did not have significantly different levels of optimism than those who grew up in non-intact homes. As expected, family satisfaction, family cohesion, and an authoritative parenting style were all shown to be independently significantly correlated with higher levels oflife satisfaction in the participants. Surprisingly, though, when each group of participants from different family backgrounds was analyzed through a matrix model, authoritarian maternal parenting style emerged as a significant predictor of life satisfaction in the Family structure and psychological factors young adults who grew up in stepfamilies, permissive maternal parenting style emerged as a significant predictor of life satisfaction in those from single-parent families, and only family satisfaction was shown to be significant for those who grew up in intact homes. Finally, neither the presence nor absence of siblings, nor an increase in the number of siblings, was related to the participants' life satisfaction scores. Suggestions for future research and clinical implications are also discussed.

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