Asia-Pacific Edu Res (2016) 25(3):423–432 DOI 10.1007/s40299-015-0271-0
REGULAR ARTICLE
Personality and Parenting Style as Predictors of Life Satisfaction Among Chinese Secondary Students Qiuzhi Xie1 • Weiqiao Fan2 • Paul Wong3 • Fanny M. Cheung4
Published online: 23 December 2015 De La Salle University 2015
Abstract Student life satisfaction plays a key role in academic achievement; however, the exploration on the predictors of life satisfaction in secondary school students is insufficient. This study explored how indigenous personality traits and parenting style predicted students’ life satisfaction. The participants were 718 junior secondary students in China with a mean age of 13.39 years. Personality, parental style, and life satisfaction were assessed through inventories which were statistically supported in the literature. The results showed that personality, parenting style, and life satisfaction were interrelated. Personality and parenting style altogether accounted for around 31 % variance in student global life satisfaction. Specifically, global life satisfaction could be predicted by the personality factors of emotional stability, dependability, and indigenous interpersonal relatedness as well as authoritative and permissive parenting styles. Different domains of life satisfaction were predicted by personality factors and parenting styles to different extents. Implications for crosscultural theorizing and positive education are discussed.
& Weiqiao Fan
[email protected] 1
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Tai Po, Hong Kong
2
Research Institute of International and Comparative Education, Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China
3
Department of Early Childhood Education, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Tai Po, Hong Kong
4
Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong
Keywords Life satisfaction Personality Parenting style Chinese secondary students
Introduction Subjective well-being (SWB), which refers to the emotional evaluations and cognitive appraisal of life quality, plays a critical role in student educational outcomes such as academic success and self-efficacy (Ojeda et al. 2011; Tong and Song 2004). Higher levels of SWB are likely to lead to more positive academic experiences (Ojeda et al. 2011). The emotional aspect of SWB is generally instable and often depends on individual’s internal or external factors, whereas the cognitive aspect of SWB, life satisfaction, is a comparatively stable indicator of SWB (Diener et al. 1999). There is a dearth of research on the predictors of life satisfaction among secondary school students. Although previous studies suggested that personality has a strong effect on life satisfaction (Diener et al. 2003), these studies were primarily conducted among adults and only a small number of studies focused on secondary students (Ho et al. 2008; Suldo et al. 2015). Because adolescents’ life perspectives and development needs are likely to be different from those of adults, the findings obtained among adults may not be generalizable to secondary students (Park and Huebner 2005). Parenting style is also a potentially significant contributor to student life satisfaction (Chan and Koo 2011; Chen 2014; Milevsky et al. 2007; Suldo and Huebner 2004). However, most of the studies on SWB’s associations with personality or with parenting style were conducted in Western cultural contexts, and there is a dearth of such studies conducted in Asia. Cultural context is an important factor affecting people’s characteristics, parenting, and life
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satisfaction (e.g., Chen 2014; Cheung et al. 2008; Diener et al. 2003); therefore, the findings obtained in the Western cultural contexts may or may not be generalizable to other cultural contexts. Building on this assumption background, the present study aimed to address the relative predictive power of personality and parenting style for life satisfaction in the Chinese cultural context and in secondary students.
Life Satisfaction and Personality Personality is a crucial factor that explains individual differences and significantly contributes to life satisfaction. The relationship between personality and life satisfaction has been investigated primarily among adults and primarily by assessing personality based on the Big Five (e.g., Costa and McCrae 1980; Fagley 2012). It has been consistently found in both adults and adolescents that neuroticism and extraversion are most strongly associated with life satisfaction (Garcia 2011; Pavot et al. 1997; Rigby and Huebner 2005). Neuroticism has a strong negative impact on life satisfaction, whereas extraversion has a positive impact (Fagley 2012; Suldo et al. 2015). Schimmack et al. (2004) further reported that the depression facet of neuroticism and the positive emotions/cheerfulness facet of extraversion were especially strong predictors of life satisfaction. Several studies also showed that conscientiousness was a significant predictor of life satisfaction; and openness to experience and agreeableness also positively correlated with life satisfaction (e.g., Fagley 2012; Suldo et al. 2015; Zhai et al. 2013). Existing studies also investigated to what extent personality accounts for the variance in life satisfaction; however, the findings were not consistent. DeNeve and Cooper’s (1998) earlier meta-analysis indicated that the Big Five accounted for 4 % variance in life satisfaction. A few scholars argued that their analysis far underestimated the contribution of personality (e.g., Steel et al. 2008). Steel et al’s. (2008) meta-analysis suggested that around 18 % of the variance in life satisfaction could be accounted for by personality. Recent studies conducted in the West reported higher degree to which personality explained the variance in life satisfaction. For example, Fagley (2012) reported that personality explained around 30 % variance in life satisfaction. Lounsbury et al. (2005) and Suldo et al. (2015) found that personality substantially accounted for the variance in life satisfaction up to 45 %. In addition, a study conducted among Chinese employed adults indicated that personality accounted for 12 % of the variance in life satisfaction (Zhai et al. 2013). The different degrees of the associations showed in different studies may result from different participant samples and different measurements
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used to assess life satisfaction. However, these studies generally showed that personality is likely to substantially account for the variance in life satisfaction in the modern Western societies. Personality theories of SWB have been developed to explain the personality–SWB relationship. Some theories focus on the baseline levels of well-being and explain that personality affects individuals’ actions and circumstance that in turn influences SWB. For example, in building the Dynamic Equilibrium Model, Headey and Wearing (1992) contended that the extraverts are more likely than the introverts to be married or to have a high-status job which may in turn affect their average level of well-being. Some researchers focused on emotional reactivity. For example, Rusting and Larsen (1997) argued that the extraverts are more likely to be reactive to pleasant emotional stimuli than are the introverts, and those who are neurotic are more likely to be reactive to unpleasant emotional stimuli than are those who are emotionally stable. However, a few experience-sampling studies only found small personality differences in reactivity that could not account for all the covariance between personality and SWB (Diener et al. 2003). In addition, other scholars argued that personality affects cognitive processes of emotional information and thus influences the level of SWB. For instance, Derryberry and Reed (1994) found that the extraverts tended to shift their attention away from rewarding stimuli more slowly than did the introverts. With a cross-cultural perspective, Schimmack et al. (2002) found that although extraversion and neuroticism related to life satisfaction in both individualistic and collectivistic samples, the relationships were stronger in the individualistic samples than in the collectivistic samples. This suggests that the relationships between personality and life satisfaction are likely to be moderated by cultural contexts. What are emphasized in the Chinese cultural contexts may be different from those in the Western societies. For instance, family orientation and harmony reflect important contents in the personality factor space for Chinese people (Cheung et al. 2001). However, these factors are not considered in Big Five or other personality measures developed in the Western contexts (Cheung et al. 2001). To advance our understanding of personality among Chinese people, Cheung and her collaborators (Cheung et al. 2001; Cheung et al. 2008; Cheung et al. 2013) developed the Cross-cultural (Chinese) Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI, including adult version—CPAI and CPAI-2, and adolescent version—CPAI-A) with a combined etic-emic approach. In CPAI personality inventories, besides those factors overlapped with Big Five factors, interpersonal relatedness (IR) is pertinent to agreeableness in Big Five but is also far
Personality and Parenting Style as Predictors of Life Satisfaction Among Chinese Secondary…
beyond the meaning of agreeableness. As an indigenous personality factor in Chinese people, IR characterizes interpersonal relationship orientations and reflects the traditional Chinese values of family orientation and harmony that have been merged into the characteristics of Chinese people. Accordingly, the indigenous IR factor is likely to associate with life satisfaction in Chinese people. Ho et al. (2008) reported significant incremental validities of IR factor to life satisfaction beyond those universal personality factors in Big Five model (i.e., emotional stability and extraversion) among a Hong Kong adolescent sample. While Chinese societies are all impacted by Chinese traditional culture, they somewhat differ in the current social, political, economic, and educational conditions (Leung et al. 2004). Therefore, the influence of IR factor on life satisfaction still needs to be further confirmed in other Chinese societies, such as Mainland China and Taiwan.
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an important role in adolescents in particular in a collectivistic society like China (Leung et al. 2004). As parenting style is related to parent–child relationship, parenting style is also likely to be an important predictor of life satisfaction among Chinese secondary students. However, the research on the relationship between parenting style and life satisfaction is inadequately conducted in the Chinese cultural context. We found that only Leung et al. (2004) and Chen (2014) investigated the influence of parenting style in the Hong Kong Chinese society and they obtained similar findings to those obtained in the West. However, given again the social contextual differences between different Chinese societies (Leung et al. 2004), their findings obtained in Hong Kong may or may not be valid for other Chinese societies.
The Current Study Life Satisfaction and Parenting Style Suldo et al. (2015) pointed out the need to look into the other predictors of life satisfaction as opposed to personality. In secondary school students, parenting plays a significant role in their development (e.g., Chan and Koo 2011) and is likely to be a strong predicator of life satisfaction. Baumrind’s (1991) framework of parenting style has been extensively used to examine parenting quality. This framework identifies parenting styles based on two dimensions: demandingness and responsiveness. Authoritarian parenting style is demanding but not responsive, and it emphasizes order and obedience. Authoritative parenting style is both demanding and responsive, and it emphasizes both clear standards and support. Permissive parenting style is more responsive than demanding, and parents with this style allow for children’s self-regulation and do not accentuate authority. Scholars have found that parenting style impacts a number of developmental outcomes and psychological functions in adolescents (Chan and Koo 2011) and could be an important predictor of student life satisfaction. The studies conducted in the West consistently suggested a positive association between authoritative parenting style and adolescent life satisfaction (e.g., Chan and Koo 2011; Milevsky et al. 2007; Suldo and Huebner 2004). Suldo and Huebner’s (2004) study also indicated that the effect of parenting style on global life satisfaction declined as a function of the increase of age. Research conducted in the Chinese cultural contexts has suggested that parent–child relationship is an important predictor of adolescent life satisfaction (e.g., Leung and Zhang 2000), possibly due to the fact that family life plays
To summarize, life satisfaction and its correlates, especially personality and parenting, are likely to be affected by culture; however, most studies on the correlates of life satisfaction were conducted in the West and did not discuss cultural influences. Furthermore, the studies on the relationship between personality and life satisfaction in secondary students are inadequate. Additionally, Suldo et al. (2015) pointed out that the studies on the predictive power of personality for life satisfaction as opposed to that of other powerful predictors are not sufficient. In the light of this research background, this study aims to investigate the determinants of life satisfaction among secondary school Chinese students by focusing on parenting style and indigenous personality traits. We posited that the indigenous personality factor of interpersonal relatedness will predict student life satisfaction along with the factors relevant to extraversion and neuroticism. We also posited that authoritative parenting style is a positive predictor of life satisfaction.
Methods Participants The participants were 718 junior Secondary 1–3 students (411 females) in Shanghai and Guangzhou in China with a mean age of 13.39 years (SD = 1.03). Data collection was conducted at the schools and granted by teachers and parents. The students signed the informed consent to indicate their voluntariness to participate in this study. Ethical approval was obtained from Shanghai Normal University.
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Instruments The Cross-Cultural (Chinese) Personality Assessment Inventory for Adolescent (CPAI-A) (Cheung et al. 2005) The CPAI-A is a self-report measurement developed for assessing personality in Chinese people. This instrument is composed of 25 general personality scales and 13 clinical personality scales. In the current study, only the 25 personality scales were used, and these scales were assessed by a total of 307 items to be answered in a yes-or-no format. By using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), it was demonstrated that these scales could be categorized in social potency/expansiveness, emotional stability, interpersonal relatedness, and dependability factors (Cheung et al. 2008). Each factor score is the average score of the corresponding scales. Social potency, which is relevant to extraversion and openness to experience in the Big Five, refers to the orientation toward novelty, change, self—development, and sociability. Social potency consists of the scales of novelty, diversity, divergent thinking, leadership, extraversion vs introversion, enterprise, and sensation seeking. Emotional stability is similar to neuroticism in the Big Five, and comprises the scales of emotionality, inferiority vs selfacceptance, optimism vs pessimism, internal vs external locus of control, and face. Dependability is closely related to conscientiousness in the Big Five and is composed of the scales of meticulousness, responsibility, discipline, and meaning in life. Interpersonal relatedness consists of the scales of harmony, family orientation, relationship orientation, graciousness vs meanness, interpersonal tolerance, self vs social orientation, veraciousness vs slickness, and social sensitivity. Sample items from each of the factor are listed in the Appendix Table 3. A number of studies reported good internal consistency reliability, good test–retest reliability, and good construct validity of this inventory (e.g., Cheung et al. 2008a, b, 2013; Ho et al. 2008). In this study, the Cronbach’s alpha values ranged from .76 to .85 for the four factors.
The Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ; Buri 1991) The PAQ was developed to measure authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting styles based on Baumrind’s (1971) theory. It contains 60 items, among which 30 items are used to assess paternal parenting style and the other 30 items assess maternal parenting style. An item for assessing paternal parenting style is followed by the same item specified for assessing maternal parenting style. A 5-point Likert scale (1 indicates absolute disagreement and 5 indicates absolute agreement) was used
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for scoring, and the three scale scores corresponding to the three prototypes of parenting styles were calculated for each parent. Sample items from each of the subscales are listed in the Appendix Table 4. A number of studies indicated good psychometric properties of this questionnaire (Buri 1991). Buri (1991) reported that the test–retest reliability of this questionnaire ranged from .77 to .92 for the scales and the Cronbach’s alpha values also ranged from .77 to .92. This questionnaire has been translated and used in China, and the Chinese version has good psychometric properties (Chen 2014; Ho et al. 2008). In this study, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of all the scales ranged from .71 to .76. The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener et al. 1985) The SWLS consists of 35 items and was used to assess adolescents’ global life satisfaction (5 items) and their satisfaction in five domains: family (7 items), friend (4 items), health (4 items), school life (9 items), and self (6 items). A 7-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree) was used to calculate scale scores. Higher values indicate higher levels of life satisfaction. Sample items from each of the subscales are listed in the Appendix Table 5. Diener et al.’s (1985) study reported good internal consistency, good temporal reliability, and good concurrent validity. This scale has been translated and validated in China, and the Chinese version has good psychometric properties (Chen 2014; Sachs 2003). In this study, the Cronbach’s alpha was .76 for the global life satisfaction scale and ranged from .67 to .75 for the other five scales. These alpha values indicated acceptable internal consistency reliability of this survey. Data Analysis First, we computed the zero-order correlations among personality, parenting style, and life satisfaction. We also conducted multiple regressions to explore the degree to which life satisfaction could be accounted for by personality and parenting style.
Results The Correlations Among Personality, Parenting Style, and Life Satisfaction As shown in Table 1, all the Chinese personality factors were correlated positively with global life satisfaction and the satisfaction in the family, friend, school, and self
8.18
8.15
6.33
E_S
I_R
De
35.77
30.27
28.79
36.08
30.19
Au_F
Per_F
An_M
Au_M
Per_M
4.86 4.04
4.36
4.57
4.65
Friend Health
School
Self
Global
1.25
1.15
.60
.83 .80
.85
5.49
6.45
7.00
5.48
6.50
6.94
1.92
1.68
2.19
1.45
SD
.76
.71
.69
.73 .75
.67
.72
.75
.76
.71
.77
.76
.76
.85
.85
.82
Alpha
.23**
.34**
.22**
.25** -.01
.16**
.04
.19**
-.06
.04
.18**
-.04
.41**
.27**
.34**
S_P
.44**
.43**
.23**
.25** -.01
.29**
.05
.27**
-.23**
.03
.25**
-.22**
.46**
.74**
E_S
.38**
.27**
.22**
.27** -.06
.37**
-.03
.32**
-.32**
-.04
.30**
-.27**
.34**
I_R
.41**
.29**
.26**
.18** .02
.31**
.12**
.31**
-.05
.11**
.29**
-.05
De
-.04
-.03
.10**
-.10** .09
-.02
.20**
-.12**
.86**
.19**
-.14**
An_F
.35**
.25**
.22**
.23** .04
.43**
.32**
.86**
-.17**
.38**
Au_F
.22**
.19**
.16**
.10* .10*
.22**
.87**
.32**
.19**
Per_F
-.08*
-.10*
.07
-.10* .07
-.07
.17**
-.15**
An_M
.36**
.24**
.24**
.22** .06
.45**
.38**
Au_M
.25**
.21**
.19**
.11** .12**
.23**
Per_M
.56**
.41**
.38**
.37** .12**
Family
.39**
.38**
.28**
.08
Friend
.11**
.09*
.26**
Health
.38**
.40**
School
.51**
Self
* p \ .05, ** p \ .01
S_P social potency. E_S emotional stability. I_R interpersonal relatedness. De dependability. PS parenting style. An_F paternal authoritarian style. Au_F paternal authoritative style. Per_F paternal permissive father. An_M maternal authoritarian style. Au_M maternal authoritative style. Per_M maternal permissive style. LS life satisfaction. School school life. Global global life satisfaction
4.97
Family
LS
28.50
An_F
PS
6.43
S_P
Personality
Mean
Table 1 Zero-order correlations among personality, parenting style, and life satisfaction
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domains. The correlation coefficients showed that social potency and emotional stability were most strongly correlated with the satisfaction in self, whereas interpersonal relatedness and dependability were most strongly correlated with the satisfaction in the family domain. Emotional stability was most strongly related to global life satisfaction, and dependability came the second. Parenting style was also correlated with students’ life satisfaction. Specifically, authoritative and permissive parenting styles of both parents were positively correlated with global life satisfaction. Authoritative parenting style was also strongly and positively correlated with the satisfaction in four dimensions except for health. Permissive parenting style was positively correlated with the satisfaction in all the five dimensions. In addition, father’s authoritarian style weakly negatively correlated with the satisfaction in friend and weakly positively correlated with the satisfaction in school life. Additionally, students’ personality and parenting style were also related. Paternal and maternal authoritarian styles were negatively correlated with their children’s emotional stability and interpersonal relatedness. Paternal and maternal authoritative styles were positively related to all the four personality factors of their children. Paternal and maternal permissive styles were weakly positively correlated with children’s dependability.
Prediction of Life Satisfaction from Personality and Parenting Style Multiple regressions were conducted to explore the predictive power of personality and parenting styles for life satisfaction among secondary students (Table 2). In the regression models, global life satisfaction and the satisfaction in the five domains were the dependent variables, whereas the four Chinese personality factors and parenting styles were the independent variables. Because father’s and mother’s parenting styles in the same categories were very similar (r [ .80), we combined fathers’ and mothers’ parenting styles with their means in the regressions to avoid the problem of multicollinearity. Standardized ß values were reported so that the predictive power of independent variables can be compared. The results show that the personality factors of emotional stability and dependability were strong predictors of global life satisfaction, while interpersonal relatedness was a weak predictor. Authoritative and permissive parenting styles predicted global life satisfaction along with personality factors. In addition, life satisfaction in family could be predicted by interpersonal relatedness, dependability, authoritative parenting style, and permissive parenting style. Life satisfaction in friend could be predicted by social potency,
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Q. Xie et al. Table 2 Multiple regression for predicting life satisfaction by personality and parenting style Variable
Life satisfaction (standardized b) Family
Friend
Health
School
Self
Global
Personality S_P
-.02
.18**
-.03
.12**
E_S I_R
-.08 .31**
.04 .17**
.06 -.10
.04 .13*
.41** -.12*
.21** .10*
-.03
.10*
.01
.22**
De
.14**
-.02 -.03
.20**
-.01
PS An_P
.07
.06
.15**
Au_P
.31**
.11*
.06
.12**
-.00 .08*
.16**
.03
Per_P
.11**
.07
.07
.09*
.15**
.14**
R2
.30**
.14**
.02
.16**
.27**
.31**
S_P social potency. E_S emotional stability. I_R interpersonal relatedness. De dependability. PS parenting style. An_P authoritarian parenting. Au_P authoritative parenting. Per_P permissive parenting. School school life. Global global life satisfaction * p \ .05. ** p \ .01
interpersonal relatedness, and authoritative parenting style. Life satisfaction in school life could be predicted by social potency, interpersonal relationship, dependability, and all the three parenting styles; however, among the three styles, the predictive power of authoritarian style was the strongest, whereas that of permissive style was the weakest. Life satisfaction in self was strongly predicted by emotional stability and could also be predicted by social potency, interpersonal relatedness (negative prediction), authoritative parenting style, and permissive parenting style. None of the personality factors and parenting styles predicted life satisfaction in health. Personality factors and parenting style altogether accounted for 31 % of the variance in global life satisfaction; and they also accounted for 29.5, 13.7, 2.2, 15.5, and 26.9 % of the variance in life satisfaction in family, friend, heath, school life, and self domains, respectively.
Discussion In this study, we explored the importance of personality relative to that of parenting style in life satisfaction. This study has a number of strengths. First, it is the first study that explored the importance of personality relative to that of parenting style in life satisfaction. Second, this study supplemented the insufficient literature on the determinants of life satisfaction in secondary students and also in the mainland Chinese cultural context. Third, given the cultural impact on personality, our study used the personality measurement, which considers both emic and etic
Personality and Parenting Style as Predictors of Life Satisfaction Among Chinese Secondary…
personality factors and is tailored for Chinese people. The results of this study indicate that both personality and parenting related to student life satisfaction, and the regression model shows that personality and parenting styles together accounted for around one-third of the variance in global life satisfaction.
Contributions of Personality to Life Satisfaction The four personality factors were related to global life satisfaction and the satisfaction in family, friend, school, and self; however, none of the personality factors were related to the satisfaction in health. It could be that health is more closely related to one’s actual physical condition; thus, life satisfaction in health may have less to do with psychological functioning than with the more objective state of one’s physical condition. Yet, other dimensions of life satisfaction may regard interpersonal interactions and are related to psychological functioning, thus are likely to be associated with personality. The regression model demonstrates that emotional stability, dependability, and interpersonal relatedness were predictors of global life satisfaction. The strong predictive power of emotional stability and dependability is consistent with previous findings (e.g., Fagley 2012; Suldo et al. 2015) and suggests that the specific relationships between personality and life satisfaction are likely to be pancultural, although the extent of the relationships may vary across cultures (Schimmack et al. 2002). Being emotionally stable and dependable may be prerequisites for a high level of life satisfaction across different cultures. The theories that emphasize baseline levels of life satisfaction, emotional reactivity, and cognitive processes of emotional information are likely to explain the personality differences in life satisfaction; and these processes are likely to be similar across cultures. According to the baseline levels of life satisfaction, it could be that people having high-emotional stability are less likely to suffer from psychopathological symptoms (Griffith et al. 2010) that may adversely affect people’s perceived life quality; dependable people are more likely to be highly trusted, which in turn render them more satisfied with their life. It could also be that emotionally unstable individuals are more reactive to unpleasant emotional stimuli or they tend to increase their attention to anxiety-relevant information and are more likely to make negative estimates of future events (Diener et al. 2003). The prediction by interpersonal relatedness, which is a cultural component of the personality of Chinese people, was consistent with Ho et al.’s (2008) findings obtained in Hong Kong, indicating that the orientation toward interdependence is associated with general life satisfaction among Chinese people.
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The current findings also show that the degree of predictive power of these personality factors varied as a function of different domains of life satisfaction. Emotional stability was an especially strong predictor of life satisfaction in self, but did not predict life satisfaction in the domains involving the interaction with others (i.e., family, friend, and school life). By contrast, dependability predicted life satisfaction in family and school life but did not predict life satisfaction in friend and self. Although social potency was not found to be a unique predictor of global life satisfaction, it significantly contributed to life satisfaction in friend, school life, and self. Friends and school life are the primary components of social life in secondary students. Those who scored high on social potency tend to be more outgoing and have stronger leadership capacity and, therefore, are more likely to be satisfied with their social life and themselves. Interpersonal relatedness was a positive predictor of life satisfaction in family, friend, and school life; however, this personality factor contributed negatively to life satisfaction in self. This finding is not beyond anticipation. While the emphasis on harmonious relationship may lead to more satisfaction in the interaction with other people, it may lead to the de-emphasis on selfconcept and self needs. Contributions of Parenting Style to Life Satisfaction The present study shows the contributions of parenting style to life satisfaction. The findings indicate that parental regulation and responsiveness, no matter from father or mother, are influential in student life satisfaction. According to the results, authoritative parenting, among the three parenting styles, was most strongly correlated with and predicted global life satisfaction and the satisfaction in all the dimensions except for health. Consistent with previous findings (e.g., Chan and Koo 2011; Milevsky et al. 2007), the importance of authoritative parenting style in student life satisfaction is demonstrated in this study. This suggests that the role of parenting style in student life satisfaction is generally consistent across cultures. Students who perceive high level of both parent regulation and responsiveness tend to perceive high quality of life regardless of what cultural contexts they are in. Permissive parenting style also predicted global life satisfaction and authoritarian parenting style was most weakly related to global life satisfaction. Our findings also indicate that the importance of parenting focusing on regulation as opposed to that focusing on responsiveness varies as a function of different domains of life satisfaction. Authoritarian parenting style only strongly predicted the satisfaction in school life. The regressions additionally showed that, although all the parenting styles contribute to school-related life satisfaction,
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the authoritarian style contributes to school-related life satisfaction to the largest degree, and the authoritative style came the second. This suggests that, while both parental regulation and parental responsiveness are positive predictors of school-related life satisfaction, the parental regulation is likely to be more important than the parental responsiveness in the satisfaction in the school life domain. It could be that parental regulations render students more likely to adapt to school regulations and thereby be favored by teachers. On the other hand, the prediction by permissive parenting style suggests that parental support and autonomy may be critical for students to be satisfied with family life and with themselves. Our findings furthermore show that father’s and mother’s parenting styles had similar associations with student life satisfaction. It could be that in nowadays China, especially in big cities, women tend to increasingly focus on career and both parents in most families work outside. As a result, father and mother tend to spend similar amount of time with families, and this may explain why the effect of parenting styles of both parents tend to be similar. Practical Implications, Limitations, and Future Directions This study has practical implications for improving life satisfaction among secondary students in the Chinese cultural context. Our findings further confirm the importance of personality and parenting style in student life satisfaction, which plays a significant role in academic achievement (e.g., Ojeda et al. 2011). Because emotional stability is consistently found to be a significant predictor of life satisfaction, early interventions are needed to help emotionally unstable students to improve their life satisfaction. School-related life satisfaction is especially important in student school life. Therefore, students’ characteristics regarding interpersonal relatedness, extraversion, leadership capacity, and dependability, which are predictors of life satisfaction in school life, should also be emphasized. Also, the findings suggest that family life education and parenting programs are needed to cultivate authoritative parenting style so as to improve life satisfaction in secondary students. This study has several limitations. First, it only measured self-report personality and parenting style. Thus, the corresponding data merely reflect students’ perceived personality and parenting style, rather than the objective
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attributes. Second, it only described the relationships among personality, parenting style, and life satisfaction, but did not explore the possible reasons underlying the current findings. Third, our findings are limited by a crosssectional design and, therefore, cannot shed light on the causal relationships between the variables investigated in this study. In light of these limitations, future studies involving a longitudinal design are needed to explore personality, parenting style, and life satisfaction through a certain period of adolescence life span. In so doing, the causal links among personality, parenting style, and life satisfaction could be shown. In addition, more studies are needed to explore the possible reasons underlying the relationships found in this study. Future studies using experimental or quantitative methods can examine whether some factors, such as achievements, emotional reactivity, and cognitive processes of emotional stimuli, would mediate the relationship between personality and life satisfaction. Qualitative studies are also needed to look into how students perceive the role of parenting style in their life satisfaction. In addition, to further explore the factors that are likely to be among the strongest predictors of life satisfaction, future studies are needed to involve more SWB-related factors (such as hopeful thinking and self-esteem) together with personality to compare and identify the most important determinants of student life satisfaction.
Highlights •
• • •
Contributions of both etic and emic personality factors to life satisfaction were examined among Chinese secondary students. Personality, parenting style, and life satisfaction were interrelated. Personality and parenting style altogether accounted for 31 % variance in student life satisfaction. Emotional stability, dependability, and indigenous interpersonal relatedness as well as authoritative and permissive parenting styles were significantly contributed to global life satisfaction.
Appendix See Tables 3, 4 and 5.
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Table 3 Sample items of the cross-cultural (Chinese) personality inventory for adolescents (CPAI-A; Cheung et al. 2005) Factor
Sample items
Social potency
I do not like stable jobs; instead I like challenges. (from Novelty subscale)
Emotional stability
Sometimes I feel miserable for no reason. (from Emotionality subscale)
Dependability
Measures the degree to which a person can be relied upon to carry out tasks and achieve aims. (From Responsibility subscale)
Interpersonal relatedness
I easily get into conflict with other people. (Reverse-scored) (From Harmony subscale)
Table 4 Sample items of The Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ; Buri 1991) Subscale
Sample items
Authoritarian parenting As I was growing up my father (mother) often told me exactly what he (she) wanted me to do and how he (she) style expected me to do it Authoritative parenting As I was growing up my father (mother) gave me clear direction for my behaviors and activities but he(she) was also style understanding when I disagreed with him (her) Permissive parenting style
My father (mother) did not view himself (herself) as responsible for directing and guiding my behavior as I was growing up
Table 5 Sample items of the satisfaction with life scale (SWLS; Diener et al. 1985) Subscale
Sample items
Global life satisfaction
I am satisfied with my life
Life satisfaction in family
My parents could understand me very well.
Life satisfaction in friend Life satisfaction in health
I have a number of good friends. My body is very healthy
Life satisfaction in school life
Most classmates do not like me. (Reverse-scored)
Life satisfaction in self
I am confident very much.
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