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Family Life Satisfaction in Midlife
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- Author / Creator
- Somerville, Sarah, Dawn
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Despite its recognized importance in the literature, satisfaction with family life and the factors that influence it remain understudied in family science. To provide additional insight in this area, I applied the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation (VSA) Model to answer the question: what are the predictors of family life satisfaction among adults in midlife? Data from 402 adults aged 50 years in the Edmonton Transitions Study were used to answer the research question. Specifically, the analysis examined the effect of stressors (perceived life stress and work-family balance), enduring vulnerabilities (parent-adolescent conflict; depression; and transitions to marriage, parenthood, divorce, remarriage, and the empty nest), and adaptive processes (joint decision-making, the division of labour, and perceived fairness of the division of household labour) in predicting satisfaction with family life. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that joint decision-making between couples predicted higher satisfaction with family life, while depressive symptoms and experiencing either a divorce or remarriage predicted lower family life satisfaction at age 50. These results highlight the role of the couple relationship and mental health in shaping how midlife adults perceive their satisfaction with family life.
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- Spring 2020
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Science
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- License
- Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.