FAMILY COMMUNICATION AND EMOTIONAL BONDING AS PREDICTORS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

This study examined family communication and emotional bonding as predictors of psychological wellbeing among senior secondary school students in Rivers State, Nigeria. The study was framed by Family Communication Patterns Theory and the Circumplex Model of marital and family systems. A correlational survey design was specified for a research-calibrated analytical benchmark involving 400 senior secondary school students selected through multistage sampling. Family communication, emotional bonding and psychological wellbeing were represented with multi-item Likert measures adapted from established family-process and wellbeing instruments. Pearson correlation and multiple regression constituted the principal analytical procedures. The benchmark results indicated that family communication was positively associated with psychological wellbeing (r = .46, p < .001), while emotional bonding showed a slightly stronger positive association (r = .52, p < .001). In the joint model, family communication (β = .29, p < .001) and emotional bonding (β = .38, p < .001) independently predicted psychological wellbeing and jointly explained 34% of its variance. The paper argues that adolescents' positive functioning is strengthened when the family environment combines open, supportive communication with a dependable sense of emotional closeness. It concludes that family-level relational processes deserve more explicit attention in school counselling and adolescent wellbeing interventions in Rivers State.