The Relationship between Parental Bonding and School Well-Being: The Mediating Role of General Causality Orientation

Nowadays psychologists have decisively shifted their focus to well-being as a component of school life. Hence, this study was carried out to examine the mediating role of general causality orientation (and its three components, i.e., autonomy, control and impersonal) in the relationship between parental bonding and school well-being. The statistical population of the study was comprised of all 10th and 11th graders in Shiraz. The sample (N=474) was drawn through random multi-stage cluster sampling method. The instruments included General Causality Orientations Scale (Deci & Ryan, 1985), School Well-being Questionnaire (Konu & Lintonen, 2006), and the Parental Bonding Instrument (Parker, Tupling & Brown, 1979). Structural equation modeling was performed to analyze the data. The results demonstrated that parental care had a significant, positive effect on autonomy and control orientations, whereas it had a significant, negative impact on impersonal orientation. Parental care could indirectly predict school well-being, while autonomy and impersonal orientations mediated this association. In general, the findings indicated that increased parental care can enhance students’ school well-being both directly and indirectly through autonomy and impersonal orientations. Accordingly, familial (parental bonding) and motivational (general causality orientation) factors can contribute to promoting students’ school well-being.