Peer-reviewed article
Personal Meaning of a Child for an Adult as a Factor of Psychological Well-Being
К. В. Карпинский ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This is a theoretical review article examining how parenthood and children influence the psychological well-being of adults. The article synthesizes findings from multiple studies to identify patterns in how children affect different aspects of adult well-being, including cognitive, emotional, and motivational dimensions. The authors argue that the personal meaning a child holds for an adult is the key factor mediating this relationship. The paper proposes developing a psychological concept of what children mean to adults as a future research direction.
Key points
- Children and parenthood influence multiple components of adult psychological well-being: cognitive, affective, and motivational
- The personal meaning of a child for an adult is identified as the key integrative factor mediating the relationship between having children and adult well-being
- Various mediating and moderating variables influence how children affect adult psychological well-being
- The research examines multiple levels and types of well-being: global, domain, subdomain, hedonic, eudaimonic, and existential
Limitations
This is an analytical review synthesizing existing research rather than original empirical research. The document does not provide specific interventions or policies to improve child or adult well-being, nor does it present new empirical data about actual children's experiences or outcomes.
Abstract
The article presents an analytical review of modern foreign studies devoted to the psychological effects, mechanisms and patterns of influence of children and parenthood on the psychological well-being of adults. Based on the generalization of the results of individual theoretical and empirical studies, systematic and meta-analytical reviews, the history of formation, current state and prospects for the development of this scientific direction are considered. The most general and stably reproducible patterns of the impact of children and parenthood on various components (cognitive, affective, motivational), levels (global, domain, subdomain) and types (hedonic, eudaimonic, existential) of psychological well-being of adults are formulated. Additional and intermediate variables acting as mediators and moderators of the dependence of psychological well-being of adults on children and the parental role are identified. It is shown that the key integrative factor mediating this dependence is the personal meaning of the child for an adult, which determines the strength, direction and form of the influence of children and parental status on psychological well-being. Based on the results of the analytical revision and critical assessment of the current state of the problem, it is argued that a promising line of its development is the construction of a psychological concept of the personal meaning of a child for an adult.