Abstract

SCHNETTLER, Berta et al. Life, Family and Food Satisfaction in University Students. Suma Psicol. [online]. 2018, vol.25, n.1, pp.30-40. ISSN 0121-4381.  https://doi.org/10.14349/sumapsi.2018.v25.n1.4.

This study assesses the relationship between food satisfaction and family satisfaction and their relationships to university student life satisfaction, while also exploring the moderating role of the place of student residence, student self-health perception and the importance students assign to food in relation to well-being. A survey was applied to a convenience sample of 269 university students. The questionnaire included: the Satisfaction with Life Scale, Satisfaction with Food-related Life, the family subscale of the Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale and the first item of the Health-related Quality of Life Index. Having controlled for gender and socioeconomic status, it was found that a student's life satisfaction was significantly related to food satisfaction and, to a lesser extent, family satisfaction. Food satisfaction was positively and significantly related to family satisfaction. A moderating role of student residence was not found. Student health self-perception was found to moderate the relationship between family and life satisfaction, whereas the importance assigned to food in relation to well-being was found to moderate the relationship between food and student life satisfaction. These findings suggest that, in order to increase student life satisfaction, it is important to improve family satisfaction for those students who have a negative health self-perception. Likewise, improving food satisfaction is relevant for those students who gave low importance to food in regard to their well-being.

Keywords : life satisfaction; food; family; structural equation modeling (SEM); moderating role.

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