Family of origin heritage, individual well-being, and relationship satisfaction in young couples

Parenting experiences children have lived within their families can play an important role for adult children’s couple relationship, not only in terms of the actual behaviors and practices parents have engaged in during childhood and adolescence, but also in terms of the heritage of values, norms, and models adult children perceive that have settled from those experiences. The present study was designed to investigate the interplay among perceived family heritage, partners’ individual well-being and their relationship satisfaction. Two hundred and twenty premarital couples completed self-report measures of family heritage, personal well-being and relationship satisfaction. Structural equation modeling was used to test the connections among these variables. Results indicated that perceiving a positive family heritage promoted partners’ psychological well-being, which in turn sustained a satisfying couple relationship. Results were discuss also in terms of their implication for family prevention programs.