Social Connectedness and Subjective Well-Being Among Chinese Parents and Their Minor Children: An Actor-Partner-Interdependence Model Analysis

Social connectedness reflects an individual’s sense of connection to the world, and has been recognized as a critical factor in personal happiness. Parents and their children are the core members of the family and influence each other significantly. Nevertheless, the effects of their respective social connectedness on the subjective well-being of others remain unclear. This study uses a dyadic perspective grounded in family systems theory to explore the complex relationship between social connectedness and subjective well-being among Chinese parents and their children. The data used were sourced from the 2020 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS 2020), a national-level multistage stratified sampling database. The data include sociodemographic characteristics, family background, mental health, social connectedness, and subjective well-being. This study constructed an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) based on family systems theory and social role theory to analyze actor and partner effects. A total of 2,760 participants were enrolled, including minor children (mean age = 13.44, SD = 2.27) and their parents (fathers, mean age = 40.48, SD = 5.54; mothers, mean age = 38.48, SD = 5.18). Shapley decomposition revealed that social connectedness contributed greater value than other factors. The APIM indicated that the individual social connectedness values of fathers, mothers, and children had significant positive actor effects on their own subjective well-being, while only the social connectedness of mothers had a significant partner effect on the subjective well-being of minor children (effect = 0.109, 95% CI [0.060, 0.157]). These results highlight the crucial importance of social connectedness for well-being, and indicate differences in the role effects of fathers and mothers in Chinese families. These findings provide new evidence for understanding parent-child relationships and enhancing their subjective well-being within the sociocultural context of China.