Linking Slovene Women’s Family-of-Origin Communication With Perceptions of Resilience, Support Availability and Happiness in Adulthood

Abstract

Slovenia is a unique cultural context due to its high gender equality in the public sphere but traditional gender roles at home. Slovene women have strong kinship networks and family-oriented values creating an interesting backdrop to explore the mechanisms by which family-of-origin communication influences women’s happiness. Slovene women (N = 95) responded to survey questions about their family communication patterns (FCPs), resilience, perceived parental support availability and self-reported happiness. Moderated mediation model results revealed positive associations between conversation orientation and (a) resilience and (b) perceived parent support availability. Resilience and perceived parental support significantly mediated the relationship between conversation orientation and happiness. Finally, conformity orientation interacted with conversation orientation to strengthen the relationship between conversation orientation and perceived parent support availability. Study implications include exploring how FCPs work with cultural influences to shape lifelong wellbeing and offering suggestions for culturally tailored interventions to enhance resilience and support in family settings.