Parental Physical Illness and College Students' Life Satisfaction: Role of Occupational Balance.

This study examined the effects of parental physical illness and its severity on college students' life satisfaction through the role-balance framework, with occupational balance as a potential mediator. In this cross-sectional study, 324 college students from the United States completed an online survey. The students reported their parents' health/illness status and responded to measures assessing perceived family demand, family-school conflict, occupational balance, and life satisfaction. Path analyses revealed that parental illness heightened college students' perceived family demands, which subsequently contributed to increased family-school conflict and reduced occupational balance. Furthermore, occupational balance fully mediated the relationship between family-school conflict and life satisfaction. The findings highlight the importance of examining multiple role conflicts in understanding the effects of parental physical illness on college students' adjustment. Promoting occupational balance may be a potential intervention to help college students cope with the challenges of parental illness.