The Role of Parent and Child Values, Family Cohesion in Child Subjective Well-Being

Our study increases the understanding of the role of child value preferences, parental value preferences and family cohesion in child subjective well-being in Russian families. Group of schoolchildren and their mothers from different Russian regions (N=116) participated in our study. We hypothesized positive relation between child openness to change values and child subjective well-being, maternal openness to change values and child subjective well-being, child self-transcendence values and child subjective well-being, maternal self-transcendence values and child subjective well-being; negative relation between child conservation values and child subjective well-being, maternal conservation values and child subjective well-being based on Schwartz healthy values. Also we examined a role of family cohesion in the interrelation of value preferences and child subjective well-being. Results largely refuted direct hypotheses. But structural equation modeling showed that maternal values influence child values and through family cohesion influence child subjective well-being. Family cohesion mediates connection between maternal self-transcendence values and child mental disorders, maternal conservation and child mental disorders (in truncated model) and provides indirect link between maternal self-enhancement values and child subjective well-being, between maternal self-transcendence values and child self-esteem and life satisfaction, between maternal conservation and child self-esteem and life satisfaction (in truncated model). Also, we found direct influence of maternal self-enhancement preferences and maternal conservation preferences on child subjective well-being. It is concluded that, for Russian children and their mothers, family cohesion is the salient factor that provide connection between maternal and child value preferences and child subjective well-being.