Exploring Psychological Well-being of College Students in Maharashtra in Relation to their Family Environment

Family is regarded as the first and one of the most influential institutions to shape the life of an individual. Various studies have pointed out the significance of Family Environment in maintaining Psychological Well-Being of its members. With the changing socio-economic, cultural milieu, it's necessary to understand relationship of Psychological Well-Being of young adults and their family environment. Early adulthood is an important transient phase of life where youth are in stage of forming their independent identity and their relations with other family members become complex. This study explores relation between Psychological Well-Being and Family Environment of college students. The data is collected from 433 students with mean age 18.7 years from various colleges in Pune city. The sample consisted of 245 females and 188 males. The tools used in this study were Carol Ryff's Psychological Well-Being scale and Family Environment scale by Dr. Bhatiya and Chaddha. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the relationship of Psychological Well-Being with Family Environment differs remarkably in young adulthood than in childhood. Dimensions of Family Environment were significantly but negatively related to dimensions of Psychological Well-Being in college students. Expression dimension alone was a significant predictor and accounted for 7.9% of total Psychological Well-Being variance. The results imply college students' need to have enough expressive freedom in the family and simultaneously to detach from the family and explore their world freely. This has implications in counseling the young adults as well as their parents for enhancing their Psychological Well-Being.