Relationship Between Family Functioning, Parents’ Psychosocial Factors, and Children’s Well-Being

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to explore the impact of the psychosocial factors (social support, resilience, and mental health) on the family functioning and on the parent’s perception of their children’s well-being. Participants were 1757 parents of children aged 6 to 16 years, 77.3% female ( N = 1359), and 22.7% male ( N = 398), aged between 20 and 80 years ( M = 41.61 and SD = 5.71). A path analyses model indicated that social support and resilience, which were positively associated, presented positive effects on parental mental health and on family functioning. No effect was observed on family functioning by parental mental health after including the effects by social support and resilience. Finally, this model pointed out that better family functioning, more social support, and more resilience skills were related to better child well-being. Implications to research and to prevention and psychological intervention in relation to parental skills and family functioning are presented in order to promote children well-being and healthy development.