Perceived family continuity: Implications for family identification and psychological well-being

Abstract

Research has shown that people tend to perceive the national and regional groups to which they belong as temporally persistent. In this paper we conducted two studies to investigate that the family may also be perceived as having different degrees of continuity through time, and that those perceptions have implications on family identity and psychological well-being. In the first study (N = 149; with a mean age of 23, SD = 5.7), we found that perceived family continuity was positively correlated with several family related variables (e.g., family functioning, perceived family entitativity) and with psychological well-being. Our second study (N = 152; with a mean age of 40.80, SD = 12.68), replicated and extended previous findings by showing that perceived family continuity was also positively related to generative concern. Furthermore, we tested a model which revealed that perceived family continuity had a positive influence on family identification, which in turn enhanced psychological well-being. It is argued that these findings confirm the necessity to treat the continuity of the family group and the implications of family identity on well-being.