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Predicting Health and Happiness from Childhood Positive Family Relationships Across 30 Years

Fri, April 9, 3:15 to 4:15pm EDT (3:15 to 4:15pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

Overwhelming evidence indicates that adverse family environments compromise health throughout the lifespan. In contrast, the impact of positive family characteristics in promoting health and happiness remains under-examined, with prospective, longitudinal studies even more rare. Although a burgeoning literature suggests that close, nurturing relationships early in life relate to better health and well-being in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, findings primarily rely on retrospective reports from single informants. As such, little is known about how positive family relationships in childhood exert a lasting influence on health and happiness in adulthood, long after youth have left their family-of-origin context. To address this important gap, this study utilizes prospective, multi-informant data across 38 years. First, we examine the long-term link between childhood positive family relationships and subsequent physical and mental health, and global happiness in middle adulthood. Second, in order to elucidate pathways that might explain this link, we investigate the continuity of positive family relationships into adulthood as a potential mediator.

Drawing from both family systems perspectives and a positive psychology framework, we hypothesized (H1) that positive family relationships during childhood will predict greater physical and mental health and happiness in middle adulthood. Building on prior work that the quality of contemporaneous family relationships are significant for health and happiness, we expected (H2) that positive family relationships in adulthood would account for the relation between early supportive family relationships and greater adult health and happiness.

Data were from the Fullerton Longitudinal Study, a long-term investigation of 130 children beginning at age 1 through age 38. Positive family relationships (PFR; i.e., how well family members get along and support each other) were measured using independent maternal and child reports of the PFR scale (Preston et al., 2015) annually ages 9-17. When youth were age 38, they completed the PFR scale on their current family, PROMIS Scale (Hays et al., 2009) assessing physical (e.g., pain, fatigue) and mental health (e.g., anxiety, depression), Comprehensive Happiness Scale tapping global and various aspects of happiness across life domains (e.g., career, intimate relationships).

Using SEM, we tested intra-informant and cross-informant models of links between childhood PFR and adult health and happiness. Results showed significant direct paths from children’s PFR to health and happiness at age 38, but only from mothers’ PFR to health (Figure 1; model estimated using child report of PFR is in bold-face font). Results did not differ by gender, IQ or family income. Results for mediator analyses revealed that children’s and mothers’ early PFR related to PFR at age 38, which subsequently, predicted health and happiness (Figure 2).

Findings demonstrated that a close, supportive family during childhood and adolescence predicts greater physical health, mental health, and happiness in adulthood. Moreover, these data highlight the significance of the continuity of cohesive and supportive family relationships. When family members get along and support one another early in development, they are more likely to get along and support one another almost thirty years later, furnishing a foundation for greater health and happiness that traverses childhood into adulthood.

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