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Satisfaction with Family Life in South Africa: The Role of Socioeconomic Status

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Abstract

This paper investigates the determinants of self-reported satisfaction with family life, applied to the South African context, with socioeconomic status (SES) as the main covariate and family functioning as the secondary covariate of interest. An individual-, household-, and subjective SES index is constructed via multiple correspondence analysis. Structural equation modelling (SEM) and multiple-group SEM (MGSEM) are used to analyse the role of SES in explaining satisfaction with family life. Higher levels of SES, especially household SES and subjective SES, are related to greater satisfaction with family life. Family functioning, in terms of better family flexibility, is associated with higher satisfaction with family life. The MGSEM results indicate that the role of family flexibility in explaining satisfaction with family life is similar across SES quartiles; family flexibility is an important predictor of family-life satisfaction, regardless of SES quartile.

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Notes

  1. Sample sizes for quartiles of each SES index: individual SES: Q1 = 770, Q2 = 343, Q3 = 502, Q4 = 495; household SES: Q1 = 519, Q2 = 488, Q3 = 503, Q4 = 616; subjective SES: Q1 = 513, Q2 = 510, Q3 = 557, Q4 = 542.

  2. Likewise, the SEM results are reported in table format since the graphical results are too cluttered.

  3. Note that race was excluded as covariate in the MGSEM analyses. This was deemed necessary given the skewed distribution of SES across South Africa’s racial groups. For example, in some cases only one White person and no Indian/Asian persons fell into the first two SES quartiles, with the majority in the bottom two quartiles being Black, followed by Coloured individuals. This implies that in some instances the bottom two quartiles represent only certain racial groups. Moreover, the lack of observations in the White and Indian/Asian samples in the bottom two quartiles complicated model convergence.

  4. Although the S–B scaled χ 2 difference test (Satorra and Bentler 2001) should ideally be used, the software used in the analysis does not currently allow for estimation of the S–B χ 2 in the examination of group constraints. Thus, the measurement invariance analyses employ the default maximum likelihood χ 2 difference test statistic. Although this statistic does not correct for non-normality, its maximum likelihood estimates are nevertheless relatively robust even in the presence of non-normality (Acock 2013).

  5. In terms of the variables included, the MGSEM models are similar to the general SEM model as depicted in Fig. 1, except that the paths from SES to family functioning and satisfaction with family life are omitted in the MGSEM specifications because of SES being the particular group variable.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Co-Editor, Stephanie Rossouw, as well as two anonymous referees for comments and suggestions on a previous version of this paper. Participants at the 12th Conference of the International Society of Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS), 15–18 September 2014, Berlin, and at the 5th Microeconometric Analysis of South African data Conference (MASA), 9–10 November, Durban 2015, also provided suggestions. This research was supported by Rhodes University (Grants PGSD05/2015, PGSD07/2015, and RC2014/2015/2016).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics and Economic History, Rhodes University, P.O. Box 94, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa

    Ferdi Botha

  2. Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Ferdi Botha

  3. Population Health, Health Systems and Innovation Research Unit, Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), Pretoria, South Africa

    Frikkie Booysen

  4. Department of Economics, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

    Frikkie Booysen

  5. Department of Sociology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Edwin Wouters

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  1. Ferdi Botha
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Correspondence to Ferdi Botha.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 10, 11 and 12.

Table 10 Components of SES indices
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Table 11 Summary statistics and MCA weights of SES index components
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Table 12 Family attachment and changeability (FACI8) item averages.
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Botha, F., Booysen, F. & Wouters, E. Satisfaction with Family Life in South Africa: The Role of Socioeconomic Status. J Happiness Stud 19, 2339–2372 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-017-9929-z

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