Dyadic Associations Between Grandparent–Child Relationship Quality and Well-Being in Chinese Left-Behind Families: Mediating Role of Resilience

Yanlin Zhou, Nancy Xiaonan Yu, Peiqi Dong and Qiong Zhang ()
Additional contact information
Yanlin Zhou: Zhejiang University
Nancy Xiaonan Yu: City University of Hong Kong
Peiqi Dong: Zhejiang University
Qiong Zhang: Zhejiang University

Journal of Happiness Studies, 2021, vol. 22, issue 4, No 17, 1889-1904

Abstract: Abstract Chinese left-behind families (CLBF) refers to families in which both parents are rural-to-urban migrant workers while their children remain in rural regions under the care of grandparents. CLBF has become an issue of growing public concern. However, the role of relationship quality and personal resilience in promoting grandparents’ and children’s well-being in these families has not been fully recognized. Informed by the family systems theory and the ecological view of well-being, this study aimed to investigate how grandparent–child dyads show reciprocal associations between relationship quality and subjective well-being (SWB) and the extent to which resilience accounts for such reciprocal associations. Self-reported data were collected from 120 left-behind grandparent–child pairs. Analyses using the actor–partner interdependence model indicated that both grandparents and children perceived level of relationship quality showed significant associations with SWB of their own (i.e., actor effects) and SWB of the other (i.e., partner effects). Children’s resilience mediated all of the actor and partner effects of relationship quality on SWB, whereas grandparents’ resilience only mediated their actor effect and children’s partner effect. These findings indicated the interdependence of grandparents and children, and highlighted the importance of grandparent–child relationship quality and resilience in promoting SWB. Future intervention programs are suggested to integrate the enhancement of grandparent–child relationship quality and the building of resilience to boost the well-being of left-behind family members.

Keywords: Chinese left-behind families; Grandparent–child relationship quality; Dyadic; Resilience; Subjective well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10902-020-00300-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:22:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s10902-020-00300-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... fe/journal/10902/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10902-020-00300-1

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Happiness Studies is currently edited by Antonella Delle Fave

More articles in Journal of Happiness Studies from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().