Underestimated impact of family climate on young adult: Mediation and moderation effects of psychosocial maturity on well-being

Abstract

Family research has been spotlighting on the well-being of child and adolescent, but the unheeded side is the effects of family on young adults who have been transiting from dependence to independence of family. This study investigated the impacts of family climates on young adults’ well-being through mediations or moderations of psychosocial maturity. A total of 202 participants were administrated a selection of scales measuring their family climate, ego strengths, self-esteem, depression and life satisfaction. Results showed that expressiveness and active-recreational orientation were stronger predictors of well-being than did cohesion and conflict. Cohesion, expressiveness and active-recreational orientation exerted partial indirect effects through different ego strengths on indicators of well-being except moral self. Cohesion and expressiveness acted as resilience factors against deficiency in ego for moral self, while conflict interact with ego strengths to produce mixed findings of family self, social self and life satisfaction. The reversed importance of family climates suggested that a probable main task for adult is to transform the family relationship and interaction that close to the way of friendship. Empirical application of ascending egos and descending egos also brought both new perspective and critic toward Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development. These complex complementary effects of family climates and psychosocial maturity on well-being serve as rare, yet inspiring, evidence for theoretical background about family impact on adult.