Perception of Parental Love as a Predictor of Children's Life Satisfaction

Abstract

Love is a fundamental part of psychological well-adjustment, but a gap in the literature exists surrounding how perceptions of how loved adults felt by their biological parents in childhood can contribute to life satisfaction and psychological adjustment. This study aims to fill that gap by examining the impact of feeling loved by biological parents and grandparents on psychological well-being and adjustment factors later in life. 1,189 college-aged participants volunteered for the study and were recruited online via SONA at a university in the United States. We constructed a Likert-style rating scale to measure individuals’ level of perceived love (LUV) and its contribution to various adjustment indicators, including life satisfaction, depression, anxiety, trait anger, and conduct disturbance. Linear regression models and bivariate correlations were calculated for the predictor and maladjustment indicators. Results showed a modest correlation between the LUV index and life satisfaction as well as other maladjustment indicators and revealed that LUV significantly predicted life satisfaction. LUV was also a significant predictor of depression, anxiety, anger, and conduct disturbance. These results suggest that perceived love could be an important resilience factor and could be used to predict life satisfaction and psychological adjustment later in life.