College students' emotional security and family relationships

What is it about?

In South European countries, like Spain, children leave their family home later than in North Europe or USA. In fact, in year 2020, 64.5% of Spanish young adults were living with their families. And 85% of Spanish college students do not move from their community to attend college. This means that they attend college close to where they live and, in case they move, they are close enough to go back home during the weekend. But, not much research has been done to study college students' family relationships. We studied perceived relationships with father and mother, perceived interparental relationships (interparental constructive and destructive conflict), family stress, emotional security in the family (be happy with, count on own family) and family satisfaction. We also distinguished between those participants who lived with their families and those who did not, and between those whose parents were divorced and those who were not. Participants were students attending a public Spanish University (meanage = 20.13 years old). There were 66% females and 34% males; 52% lived with their families while attending college and 18% had divorced parents. There were not differences in any of the variables that we studied between those who lived with their families and those who did not. When parents were divorced, interparental conflict was less constructive, family stress was higher and they had worse relationships with their fathers. As time since divorce increased, the destructiveness of interparental conflict decreased. Family satisfaction was higher when emotional security in the family was higher, stress was lower and relationships with father and mother were higher.

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Photo by sean Kong on Unsplash

Photo by sean Kong on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Even when we study young adults, their families of origin play an important role in their lives. Parental divorce seems to have a greater impact than moving or staying with their families while attending college. But positive news indicate that as time since divorce increases, the destructiveness of interparental conflict decreases. Results have shown that emotional security in the family highly relates to family satisfaction, and family satisfaction has been identified as a partial buffer from college’s students internalizing problems. So, we hypothesize that emotional security in the family and family satisfaction may be relevant protective variables of college students’ mental health that need further consideration in future research.

Perspectives