Abstract

Objective of the study: Prior work has shown that individual history of residential mobility is associated with a variety of behavioral outcomes throughout the lifespan. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying these associations in emerging adulthood. The purpose of this study is to test a multiple moderated mediation model, where adjustment mediates the relationship between residential mobility and psychological well-being, with parental responsiveness moderating the relationship between residential mobility and adjustment. We hypothesized that residential mobility would predict higher psychological well-being through more prosocial and less aggressive behavior only if their parents were sensitive enough in their childhood.

Methodology: A sample of 439 emerging adults (Mage = 21.42, SDage = 2.20) were invited to participate in an online survey study. Participants reported the number of their past moves and rated their parents’ sensitivity in their childhood, their current prosocial and aggressive tendencies, and psychological well-being. Separate sensitivity scores for mother and father; separate scores for sub-dimensions of prosocial tendencies (public, emotional, hidden, dire, altruistic, compliant); a composite score for aggressive behavior and psychological well-being was computed.

Results: We tested our moderated mediation model using the PROCESS Macro for SPSS (Hayes, 2013) Model 7. Results showed that residential mobility predicted higher psychological well-being through increased prosocial behavior when mothers were more sensitive/caring during participants’ childhood. Father sensitivity didn’t play a mediating role in the observed relationship. Although aggressive behavior was negatively associated with father sensitivity and psychological well-being, there was no relationship between aggressive behavior and residential mobility.

Conclusion: Study findings provided support for the positive role of parental sensitivity on frequent movers’ well-being. These findings highlight the importance of parental sensitivity, especially mother sensitivity, for even a stressful life experience such as frequent moves to have positive psychological outcomes.

Biography

Prof. Yilmaz completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees, majoring in Psychology, from Bilkent University in Turkey and received her PhD in social psychology from Middle East Technical University in Turkey. She is currently working as an Assistant Professor at Anadolu University in Turkey. Her current work focuses on factors that play a role in interpersonal relationships and psychological well-being.