The Role of Cultural Heterogeneity in Strengthening the Link Between Family Relationships and Life Satisfaction in 50 Societies

Liman Man Wai LI*, Vivian Miu-Chi LUN, Michael Harris BOND, June Chun YEUNG, Eric Raymond IGOU, Brian W. HAAS, Stanislava STOYANOVA, Fridanna MARICCHIOLO, John M. ZELENSKI, Christin-Melanie VAUCLAIR, Yukiko UCHIDA, Iva POLÁČKOVÁ ŠOLCOVÁ, David SIRLOPÚ, Joonha PARK, Aleksandra KOSIARCZYK, Agata KOCIMSKA-ZYCH, Colin A. CAPALDI, Mladen ADAMOVIC, Charity S. AKOTIA, Isabelle ALBERTLily APPOH, Douglas AREVALO, Arno BALTIN, Patrick DENOUX, Alejandra Domínguez-Espinosa, Carla Sofia ESTEVES, Vladimer GAMSAKHURDIA, Márta FÜLÖP, Ragna b. GARÐARSDÓTTIR, Alin GAVRELIUC, Diana BOER, David O. IGBOKWE, İdil IŞIK, Natalia KASCAKOVA, Lucie KLŮZOVÁ KRAČMÁROVÁ, Olga KOSTOULA, Nicole KRONBERGER, Anna KWIATKOWSKA, J. Hannah LEE, Xinhui LIU, Magdalena ŁUŻNIAK-PIECHA, Arina MALYONOVA, Pablo Eduardo BARRIENTOS MARROQUIN, Tamara MOHORIĆ, Oriana MOSCA, Elke MURDOC, Nur Fariza MUSTAFFA, Martin NADER, Azar NADI, Ayu OKVITAWANLI, Yvette VAN OSCH, Vassilis PAVLOPOULOS, Zoran PAVLOVIĆ, Muhammad RIZWAN, Vladyslav ROMASHOV, Espen RØYSAMB, Ruta SARGAUTYTE, Beate SCHWARZ, Heyla A. SELIM, Ursula SERDAREVICH, Maria STOGIANNI, Chien-Ru SUN, Julien TEYSSIER, Wijnand A. P. VAN TILBURG, Claudio TORRES, Vivian L. VIGNOLES, Cai XING, Kuba KRYS*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal PublicationsJournal Article (refereed)peer-review

Abstract

We argue that the importance of family relationships for individual well-being varies across societies as a function of a society’s degree of cultural heterogeneity. To examine the role of family relationships, we analyzed the responses from 13,009 participants in 50 societies on their life satisfaction across societies varying in their levels of historical and contemporary cultural heterogeneity. Such heterogeneity creates differences in the frequency of interacting with unfamiliar groups, which leads families to become more central to their members’ satisfaction with life. Multi-level analyses showed that historical and contemporary cultural heterogeneity moderated the pattern such that greater historical or contemporary cultural heterogeneity of society promoted a stronger positive relation between family relationship satisfaction and individual life satisfaction. Our results also revealed that the moderating role of historical cultural heterogeneity was more reliable than that of contemporary cultural heterogeneity. These findings demonstrate the importance of societal demography in shaping people’s psychological processes in different historical periods, suggesting a universal, trans-historical cultural process.
Original languageEnglish
Article number76
JournalJournal of Happiness Studies
Volume25
Issue number6
Early online date7 Aug 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.

Funding

This work was supported by the Polish National Science Centre under grant 2016/23/D/HS6/02946 and 2020/38/E/HS6/00357; the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science under grants P17806 and 17F17806; the Hungarian OTKA under grant K-111 789; the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development—CNPq under grant 301298/2018-1; the Czech Science Foundation CSF under grant 20-08583S; and by the NPO “Systemic Risk Institute” no. LX22NPO5101, funded by European Union—Next Generation EU (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, NPO: EXCELES).

Keywords

  • Cultural heterogeneity
  • Family relationships
  • Life satisfaction
  • Multi-level analysis
  • Socio-ecological approach

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