Psychological Well-Being in Early Adult First-Born Children Viewed from Need for Affiliation and Authoritative Parenting

Abstract

The emerging adulthood transition in first-born children is a critical phase filled with family expectations and demands for independence, requiring optimal psychological well-being. This study aims to examine the influence of need for affiliation and authoritative parenting on psychological well-being among first-born college students. This quantitativw study involved 156 participants selected through purposive sampling, and the data were analyzed using multiple linier regression. The simultaneous test showed that need for affiliation and authoritative parenting together had a significant influence on psychological well-being, with an R² of 0.109, indicating a contribution of 10.9%. Partially, authoritative parenting had a positive and significant influence on psychological well-being, whereas need for affiliation did not show a statiscally significant influence on psychological well-being, whereas need for affiliation did not show a statistically significant influence. These findings emphasize that supportive and democratic parenting is a stronger predictor of first-born children’s psychological well-being than the need for affiliation.