Peer-reviewed article
Relations Among Maternal Life Satisfaction, Shared Activities, and Child Well-Being
Nina Richter, Rebecca Bondü, C. Katharina Spieß, Gert G. Wagner, Gisela Trommsdorff ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This study looked at how mothers' life satisfaction, the time mothers and children spend on shared activities, and children's well-being are related. It used data from 291 mother-child pairs with children aged 5 to 7 in Germany, taken from a special study of the Socio-Economic Panel. Mothers who were more satisfied with life shared more activities with their child, and their children acted more prosocially. Children who did more shared activities with their mother scored higher on self-regulation, prosocial behavior, and receptive vocabulary. The authors conclude that the results support the idea that maternal well-being underlies positive parenting and child well-being.
Key points
- Sample of 291 mother-child pairs; children aged 5 to 7, from a representative German household survey (SOEP).
- Significant positive direct and indirect relations were found between maternal life satisfaction, shared activities, and child outcomes.
- Mothers with higher life satisfaction shared more activities with their child and their children acted more prosocially.
- More frequent shared parent-child activities were linked to higher self-regulation, prosocial behavior, and receptive vocabulary.
- The authors describe maternal well-being as the basis of positive parenting practices and child well-being.
Limitations
The abstract reports associations from structural equation modelling and does not show that maternal satisfaction or shared activities cause better child outcomes. It covers only mothers and children aged 5 to 7 in Germany, so it may not apply to fathers, other age groups, or other countries.
Abstract
Maternal well-being is assumed to be associated with well-being of individual family members, optimal parenting practices, and positive developmental outcomes for children. The objective of this study was to examine the interplay between maternal well-being, parent-child activities, and the well-being of 5 to 7-year old children. In a sample of N = 291 mother-child dyads, maternal life satisfaction, the frequency of shared parent-child activities, as well as children’s self-regulation, prosocial behavior, and receptive vocabulary were assessed using several methods. Data were collected in a special study of the Socio-Economic Panel study (SOEP), a representative longitudinal survey of private households in Germany. Using structural equation modeling, significant positive direct and indirect relations between maternal life satisfaction, frequency of shared parent-child activities, children’s self-regulation, prosocial behavior, and receptive vocabulary were found. The more satisfied the mother was, the more she shared activities with her child and the more the child acted prosocially. Furthermore, the higher the frequency of shared parent-child activities, the higher the child scored in all three analyzed indicators of children´s well-being: self-regulation, prosocial behavior, and receptive vocabulary. The current study supports the assumption of maternal well-being as the basis of positive parenting practices and child well-being.