Action Mechanism Of Parenting Styles And Personalities On Life Satisfaction Among College Students And Gender Differences

Research background and purpose:Life satisfaction is involved cognitive and subjective experience processes.It is very important for subjective well-being and human psycho-social adaptation.Many factors were proved to affect life satisfaction,such as demographic information,physiological factors,psychological factors,and social factors.However,the statistical methods in most of the previous studies were correlation and regression analysis,which can not analyze the action mechanism of influencing factors(especially stable psychological factors,such as personalities and family parenting styles)on life satisfaction and gender differences.Therefore,based on theories and previous researches,this study aims to explore the action mechanisms of the family parenting styles and personalities on life satisfaction and gender differences using a structural equation model(SEM).Materials and Methods:This is a cross-sectional survey.Students of a college in Chengdu were invited to fill the off-line questionnaires from Sep.2021 to Jan.2022.The questionnaires included two parts: the first part was demographic information consisted of age,family structures,monthly expenses,and parents’ educational levels.The second part was consisted of144-Temperament and Character Inventory(144-TCI),the Chinese version of Egna Minnen av Banrdons Uppforstran(C-EMBU)and the Satisfaction with Life Scale(C-SWLS).A total of 1020 questionnaires were collected after eliminated 180 invalid questionnaires.The effective rate was 83.33%.Result:1.The average age of males was significantly lower than females(P < 0.01).But there was no gender difference in monthly expenses and family structures(P > 0.05).2.The scores in C-SWLS,emotional warmth,HA,RD,and SD for females were significantly higher than males.In contrast,the scores in punishment,over-interference,refuse,over-protection,NS,C,and ST for females exhibited lower than males(P <0.01).3.The scores of C-SWLS were significantly positively correlated with emotional warmth,preference in mother’s parenting style,but were negatively correlated with negative parenting styles.Moreover,the relationships between C-SWLS and 144-TCI exhibited gender differences: the scores of SWLS were significantly correlated with HA,RD,P,and C in males(P < 0.05);but in females were significantly correlated with HA,RD,P,SD,and C(P < 0.05).4.The structure equal models exhibited the following results: first,the C-SWLS and parenting styles were not affected by temperament significantly.Secondly,the monthly expenses affected C-SWLS significantly.Thirdly,the action mechanisms of parenting styles and 144-TCI on C-SWLS exhibited the following gender differences:In females’ SEM,the father’s parenting style of emotional warmth,preference,refuse and over-protection affected characters significantly(W =-0.30,0.18,0.17,0.37,P <0.05),and affected SWLS indirectly through characters.The part mediator effect from emotion warmth to SWLS was 16.71%.There were full mediator effects between other parenting styles and SWLS.The mother’s parenting style of emotional warmth,preference,rejection and over-interference affected characters significantly(W =-0.21,0.15,0.23,0.23,P < 0.05),and affected SWLS indirectly through characters.The part mediator effect from emotion warmth to SWLS was 10.29%.There were full mediator effects between other parenting styles and SWLS.In males’ SEM: The father’s parenting style of emotional warmth affected C-SWLS significantly(W = 0.27,P < 0.05),and the father’s punishment and over-protection affected characters significantly(W =0.28,0.23,P < 0.05).The mother’s parenting styles of emotional warmth and rejection affected C-SWLS significantly(W = 0.24,-0.16,P < 0.05),and the mother’s parenting styles of over-interference and punishment affected characters significantly(W = 0.18,0.24,P < 0.05).Conclusion:1.Though the college students’ life satisfaction was not affected by their temperament,their life satisfaction which was affected by character exhibited gender differences: characters only affected females’ life satisfaction.2.There were gender differences in the impact of parenting styles on life satisfaction: many kinds of parenting styles affected females’ life satisfaction through the mediator effect of females’ character;but there were only two kinds of parenting styles(emotional warmth and mother’s rejection)affected males’ life satisfaction.3.Increasing male college students’ monthly expenses will improve their life satisfaction.4.There were also gender differences in the impact of parenting styles on character:males’ characters were mainly influenced by negative patenting styles(punishment and rejection);in contrast,females’ characters were affected by negative parenting styles,emotional warmth,and preference.