The association between family functioning and interpersonal adaptation in Chinese college students: a moderated mediation model

Positive interpersonal adaptation helps to maintain college students’ interpersonal relationships and promote their social adaptation. Previous studies have found that positive family functioning and regulatory emotional self-efficacy facilitate interpersonal adaptation. The present study examined whether regulatory emotional self-efficacy mediated the relationship between family functioning and interpersonal adaptation and whether this mediating process was moderated by gender. Altogether, 895 (55.5% males, 17–23 years old) college students from different universities in China were interviewed. The results showed that family functioning significantly and positively predicted interpersonal adaptation. Mediation analysis indicated that regulatory emotional self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between family functioning and interpersonal adaptation. Tests of moderated mediation further revealed that gender played a moderating role in the pathway between family functioning and regulatory emotional self-efficacy. Specifically, male students’ family functioning influenced on their regulatory emotional self-efficacy more than female students. The results of the study imply the need to pay attention to gender differences and to enhance the emotional connection in the process of educating adolescents at the family level. This has positive implications for the future social life and the concrete implementation of family education policies.