Explanation of Children’s Health through Parents’ Mental Health and Job Satisfaction by Structural Equation Modeling

BACKGROUND: Worldwide, much evidence exists on the influence of parents’ socioeconomic conditions, including employment, on children’s health. However, the mechanisms for this affect are still being investigated. Few studies have been conducted in Iran to investigate this issue. This study investigated working conditions, job satisfaction, and mental health of employed people and the association between these variables and their children’s health.

MATERIALS & METHODS: In this correlational work, 200 male and female staff of the official part of Educational Organization and the schools of Mashhad with children aged 5-18 years was randomly selected. The data were gathered using a demographic questionnaire, the 20-item Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire, the 28-item General Health Questionnaire, and the 28-item Child Health Questionnaire. The data were then analyzed using SPSS. The associations under study were investigated by structural equation modeling in AMOS.

RESULTS: Approximately 17% of the variation in the parents’ job satisfaction could be explained by the parents’ insurance, income, and work hours; 6% of the variation in their mental health was explained by job satisfaction, and 26% of the variation in children’s health was directly explained by the parents’ job satisfaction and mental health. However, approximately 32.2% of the variation in children’s health could be explained in the light of the direct effect of the parents’ mental health and direct and indirect effects of the parents’ job satisfaction. The goodness of fit index was 0.94.

CONCLUSION: Parents’ job satisfaction was associated with and considerably explained children’s health. Although this finding may be partially related to the job satisfaction effect on mental health, the reasons for the affect of job satisfaction on children’s health and the potential mechanisms of this association require further studies.