Abstract

MILLAN, René  and  ESTEINOU, Rosario. Family satisfaction in Latin America: Do relationships matter?. Perf. latinoam. [online]. 2021, vol.29, n.58, 00012.  Epub June 19, 2023. ISSN 0188-7653.  https://doi.org/10.18504/pl2958-012-2021.

Despite its socioeconomic status, Latin America reports high levels of life and family satisfaction. The article provides a relational approach to address that apparent contradiction. Considering three countries (Mexico, Costa Rica and Colombia) in an aggregated form, we find that family satisfaction is strongly associated with the quality of their internal relationships. Affection, communication, frequency of contacts and mutual support define a kind of links that we call personal based interpersonal relationships. These relationships are predictors which have a higher weight in family satisfaction than socioeconomic variables, such as income, social class or education.

Keywords : family satisfaction; life satisfaction; subjective well-being; affectivity; communication; family-contact; support.