Negative Life Events and Life Satisfaction: Exploring the Role of Family Cohesion and Self-Efficacy Among Economically Disadvantaged Adolescents

An individual's cognitive evaluation of overall life satisfaction (LS) in response to negative life events (NLEs) may depend on the nature of the events as well as the internal and external adaptive resources they possess. However, little attention has been paid to the direct association between event uncontrollability and controllability and LS, as well as their indirect associations through the internal and external resources. This study examined how uncontrollable and controllable NLEs related to adolescent LS and whether family cohesion and self-efficacy mediated the association between NLEs and LS. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the two-wave nationally representative sample consisting of 956 Taiwanese junior high school students from economically disadvantaged families. The findings revealed that controllable NLEs were associated with LS, while uncontrollable events did not affect LS. The association between controllable NLEs and LS was mediated by family cohesion rather than by self-efficacy. However, self-efficacy was positively associated with LS. The results remained unchanged even after controlling for baseline LS, gender, grade, family structure and psychological distress. The results suggest that, in term of confronting controllable NLEs, strengthening the quality of family relationships may be an effective way to increase LS of economically disadvantaged adolescents in Chinese culture.