Subjective well-being is a multidimensional category of phenomena involving emotional responses, positive and negative affect, global judgments of life satisfaction and domain satisfactions (Diener et al., 1999). Life satisfaction is thus part of subjective well-being, and bottom–up theoretical approaches to life satisfaction suggest that overall life satisfaction is a combination of satisfaction in definite domains, which implies that life satisfaction depends on the level of satisfaction of a person in regard to life domains such as family, health and leisure, among others (Brief et al., 1993). In addition, different domains often interact (Wilensky, 1960). The spillover model proposes that satisfaction in one domain affects the others and that life domain satisfactions are positively related (Wu et al., 2009). Although the debate regarding the importance of different domains in subjective well-being has endured for decades, the role of domain importance in subjective well-being remains a topic that deserves further research (Hsieh, 2016).

We concentrate in this paper specifically on the role of the domains food and family in university student life satisfaction. While in university, students often face stress personally, socially, academically, economically, or in other areas of life (Çivitci, 2015; Freire et al., 2016). The relationship between family, food, and overall life satisfaction is particularly relevant during undergraduate education, which is evident by the many changes and challenges for emerging adults. During this stage, students often must separate from their family home (Blichfeldt and Gram, 2013). This shift may result in a significant disruption to an individual’s support networks (Beck et al., 2003) as well as economic hardship (Çivitci, 2015) and other personal issues. Therefore, it is expected that although university students seek personal independence, they often continue to rely on their parents for security (Guarnieri et al., 2015). Nevertheless, to our knowledge, no studies have previously assessed the relationship between satisfaction with food-related life (SWFoL), satisfaction with family life (SWFaL), and their joint influence on life satisfaction. Therefore, the primary objective of the current study is to evaluate the joint relationship of these two domains of life, namely family (Zabriskie and Ward, 2013) and food (Grunert et al., 2007), with overall life satisfaction.

Satisfaction with food-related life is defined as a person’s overall assessment regarding his or her food and eating habits (Grunert et al., 2007). Recent studies on samples of undergraduate students suggest that food is an important life domain that is positively related to overall life satisfaction. Schnettler et al. (2013b, 2015a) identified a positive and significant relationship between life satisfaction and SWFoL in samples of university students in southern Chile. Schnettler et al. (2014) explored the relationship between chronic dietary restraint, life satisfaction, and SWFoL, and confirmed the positive and significant correlation between these constructs in a sample of university students from different geographical areas in Chile. In addition, Schnettler et al. (2015c) reported that higher levels of life satisfaction and happiness are associated with greater SWFoL in students from five state universities in Chile. Using a structural equation model, Schnettler et al. (2015b) also found support for a positive and significant correlation between SWFoL and life satisfaction. More recently, Schnettler et al. (2016) confirmed the relationship between these constructs when studying university student perceptions of family eating habits in a sample from southern Chile. Therefore, against this background and based on the “bottom–up” theoretical approach to life satisfaction (Brief et al., 1993), we pose the following hypothesis:

Research into family quality of life or SWFaL is a fairly new field (Zabriskie and Ward, 2013; Mas et al., 2016); however, it has been reported that family relationships are strongly linked to subjective well-being (Botha and Booysen, 2014). Higher levels of satisfaction with family relationships are associated with greater adaptability, cohesion and communication (Zabriskie and Ward, 2013), feelings of safety (Rözer et al., 2016), and higher overall life satisfaction (Schimmack et al., 2002). Notably, the influence of family on an individual’s emotional well-being extends beyond childhood and adolescence (Thomson et al., 2015), continuing into emerging adulthood (Tinajero et al., 2015). Positive family relationships and favorable environment conditions may help individuals overcome life challenges, thus enhancing their life satisfaction during youth (Kwok et al., 2015). Schimmack et al. (2002) actually suggest that for university students, family relationships are among the most important sources of life satisfaction. Therefore, again based on the “bottom–up” approach to life satisfaction (Brief et al., 1993), we pose the following hypothesis:

Some authors have related levels of life satisfaction and SWFoL to family interactions involving foods in university students (Schnettler et al., 2013a, 2015a,b, 2016). Food behavior is a learned behavior that reflects a family’s beliefs, attitudes, and practices (Levin and Kirby, 2012). Parents can positively influence their children’s eating habits by providing healthful foods at home and by modeling healthful food choices (Schnettler et al., 2013a, 2015b; Loth et al., 2016; Nepper and Chai, 2016). In fact, access to a healthy food environment at home is associated with a healthy dietary intake (Loth et al., 2016) and with improved family functioning, as it is connected to how family members work together to provide an appropriate home environment and to ensure that each other’s basic needs are met (Speirs et al., 2016). In addition, the relationship between food and family plays an important role in the prevention and treatment of obesity (Levin and Kirby, 2012; Schnettler et al., 2013a; Ramalho et al., 2016), which is also associated with the home food environment (Nepper and Chai, 2016).

The role of food in family relationships also includes the affective dimension of food and meals as a moment of family cohesion (Ramalho et al., 2016; Speirs et al., 2016). Family meals represent an important ritual of interaction among family members, in which these members express their love, maintain close relationships, resolve conflicts, foster cohesion and functioning (Speirs et al., 2016), and give social and emotional support (Schnettler et al., 2015a, 2016; Speirs et al., 2016). Therefore, based on the “spillover” model of the interaction of life domains (Wu et al., 2009), we pose the following hypothesis:

Although the literature pertaining to social and family support at different life stages is abundant, there are still few studies on emerging adults, such as university students. Still, it has been reported that higher family social support is related with higher levels of life satisfaction in university students in samples from Spain and the United Kingdom (Goodwin and Hernández, 2000), Mexico and the United States (Matheny et al., 2008; Fakunmoju et al., 2016), China (Kong et al., 2012), Slovenia (Zupančič et al., 2014), and Chile (Schnettler et al., 2015a, 2016). Nevertheless, the relationship between family support and SWFaL has yet to be evaluated in the literature (Zabriskie and Ward, 2013). Considering that there is evidence that family influences the quality of social relationships for adult children (Thomson et al., 2015), it is expected that family support may be positively related with SWFaL. Therefore, the second aim of this study was to assess the relationship between two different types of family support (tangible or financial support and intangible or social support) and student SWFaL. Finally, as a third aim, we chose to explore the possible mediating role of SWFaL between family support and life satisfaction.

Family interaction, emotional well-being, and material or financial well-being are important dimensions that affect family quality of life (Mas et al., 2016). Regarding family interaction and emotional well-being, Rözer et al. (2016) reported that higher levels of satisfaction with family relationships are associated with social support. In addition, social and family support is positively associated with healthy eating habits (Schnettler et al., 2015a; McSpadden et al., 2016). However, the influence of financial well-being on family quality of life may also be considerable (Mas et al., 2016). Cheng et al. (2012) suggest that a high level of family economic support acts as a protective factor, whereas a low level of family economic support becomes a risk factor, thereby lowering life satisfaction and the ability to handle major stressors. However, the evidence is still scarce and inconclusive. Whereas some authors reported a positive relationship between family income or family tangible or economic support and students’ life satisfaction (Schnettler et al., 2015a; Tinajero et al., 2015; Cheung and Cheng, 2016), others have found no relationship between these variables (Menon et al., 2015; Schnettler et al., 2016). Nonetheless, family income or socioeconomic status may impact the nutrition and subjective well-being of emerging adults. Some authors have reported that families from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may not have access to or be able to afford nutritious food for their children (Schnettler et al., 2015b), thereby reducing their children’s life satisfaction and SWFoL (Schnettler et al., 2015b). At the same time, this may affect levels of SWFaL. Against this background, we test the following hypotheses:

Feeney and Collins (2015) suggest that social support exists in multiple forms and can affect behavior and well-being through several pathways. Others suggest that certain mediators of the relationship between social support and subjective well-being explain the mechanism underlying this connection (Kong and You, 2013; Liu et al., 2016). In this regard, we explore the mediating role of satisfaction with family life, through the following hypotheses:

Finally, given that males and females differed in some behaviors associated with the constructs evaluated in the model that related life satisfaction, SWFoL, SWFaL, and family support, we expect to find a moderator role of gender. Some authors have reported differences in food choices according to gender. They found that female students tended to make healthier food choices than males (Lupi et al., 2015; Hilger et al., 2017), which have been related to higher levels of SWFoL (Schnettler et al., 2013b, 2014, 2015a,b). In addition, some studies have reported that mealtime experiences may differ for male and female students, with females being more influenced by family relationships. This, in turn, may enable them to benefit more from the shared meal experience (Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2008; Schnettler et al., 2016). At the same time, it has also been reported that female students perceive more support from their families and tend to manifest a better relationship with their parents than male (Tinajero et al., 2015). Meanwhile, some authors have reported that female students are more likely to be satisfied with their life than male students (Ozben, 2013; Tinajero et al., 2015). Against this background, we test the following hypothesis:

The primary focus of this study was to assess the relation between SWFoL and SWFaL, and their relationships with life satisfaction in university students. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis confirm the positive relationship between SWFoL and life satisfaction in university students (Schnettler et al., 2013b, 2014, 2015a,c, 2016). According to the “bottom–up” theoretical approach to life satisfaction (Brief et al., 1993), results of the structural equation model analysis also confirm the positive relation between SWFoL and overall life satisfaction reported previously in a similar sample (Schnettler et al., 2015b). These findings confirm that food is a domain that could have an impact on the life satisfaction of a student within a period of life marked by the difficulty of achieving a balanced diet and associated health problems (Blichfeldt and Gram, 2013; Çivitci, 2015; Hilger et al., 2017). Also, the confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model analysis results suggest a positive relationship between SWFaL and overall life satisfaction in university students, which also is in agreement with the “bottom–up” approach to life satisfaction (Brief et al., 1993) and confirms the importance of family relationships as a source of life satisfaction in university students (Schimmack et al., 2002). It is noteworthy that the relation between SWFoL and life satisfaction was smaller than the relation between SWFaL and life satisfaction. Pavot and Diener (1993) argued that although there may be some general agreement on the components of high well-being, individuals are likely to assign different weights to each component (Zabriskie and Ward, 2013). Therefore, our results indicate that the family domain would be more important than the food domain for the university students sample considered in this study, although university students become increasingly involved in other contexts beyond their family, such as peers, romantic relationships, work and higher education (Guarnieri et al., 2015). Regardless of the above, results of the confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model show that there is a positive interaction between the domains food and family in the studied sample, consistent with the “spillover” model (Wu et al., 2009). This finding is in line with previous studies using samples of university students that have linked SWFoL to family interaction around foods (Schnettler et al., 2013b, 2015a,b, 2016), which would be associated with the affective dimension of food and meals (Ramalho et al., 2016; Speirs et al., 2016) that increase the well-being of family members given its positive association with social skills and self-esteem (Levin and Kirby, 2012).

The relationship between family and food has also been associated with the moment when family members offer each other support, especially when parents emotionally support their children (Schnettler et al., 2015a, 2016; Speirs et al., 2016). Regarding our second objective, as expected, the structural equation model analysis indicates a positive relation between intangible or emotional resources and student SWFaL, in agreement with Rözer et al. (2016). However, it is noteworthy that the relation was strong, suggesting that intangible family support is of great importance for students during the university phase, increasing their level of SWFaL. In fact, family social support has been shown to be one of the most important protective factors for emerging adults (Tinajero et al., 2015). Regarding our third aim, our results show that SWFaL has a complete mediation role between intangible resources and overall life satisfaction, indicating a non-significant relationship between intangible support and students’ life satisfaction. In this regard, although some researchers have previously reported a positive correlation between family social support and life satisfaction (Goodwin and Hernández, 2000; Matheny et al., 2008; Kong et al., 2012; Zupančič et al., 2014; Schnettler et al., 2015a, 2016; Fakunmoju et al., 2016), our findings are in line with research reporting the existence of mediators in the relation between social support and subjective well-being that explain the mechanism underlying this link, as loneliness and self-esteem (Kong and You, 2013) and core self-evaluations and coping styles (Liu et al., 2016). Therefore, both intangible family support and SWFaL may still have a central role in the development of a university student.

Conversely, there was no association between tangible resources and SWFaL, which indicates that SWFaL does not have a mediating role between tangible support from family and life satisfaction in the studied sample. At the same time, our results show no association between tangible resources and student’s life satisfaction. These were unexpected results that deserves more analysis in future research, given that university is a time when students may be responsible for their economic situation and economic hardship may be a source of stress for students (Çivitci, 2015). Although more research is needed in order to deeply study when tangible or economic resources could have a positive relation with SWFaL and with life satisfaction, a possible explanation may be related to the socioeconomic status composition of the sample. More than 80% of the students surveyed belonged to the lower-middle, low and very low socioeconomic status, therefore it is expected that tangible or economic resources may be insufficient in most of these households. Another unexpected finding was the lack of a moderator role of gender in the model that relates life satisfaction, SWFoL, SWFaL and family resources. Therefore, interventions that promote and strengthen these aspects may positively impact the life satisfaction of a student, regardless of their gender.

One of the limitations of this study include its cross-sectional design and the use of a survey to obtain the data, which does not allow us to test causality among SWFoL and life satisfaction, and between SWFaL and students life satisfaction, as well as between intangible resources and SWFaL. Therefore, in order to test causality between the aforementioned constructs, new research is required that considers experimental or quasi-experimental designs. Another limitation is related to the non-probabilistic nature of the sample and its relatively small size, as well as having been conducted with students from only one university in one country, which does not permit generalization of the results. Also, all data were self-reported, thus, responses may be affected by social desirability.

In spite of these limitations, this is the first study to assess the relation between SWFoL and SWFaL and their relationship with life satisfaction, suggesting both life domains have a positive relationship with the life satisfaction of university students, whereas both domains interact positively with each other. These findings allow the suggestion that interventions to improve the levels of SWFoL and SWFaL may improve life satisfaction of university students in developing countries in South America. In addition, this is the first study to test the relationship between two different types of family support and student SWFaL. Our findings showed a high positive relationship between intangible or emotional family support and SWFaL. In addition, we found that SWFaL may be another mediating factor between intangible family support and life satisfaction, contributing to the knowledge about mediators of the relation between social support and subjective well-being. Therefore, both intangible family support and SWFaL should be promoted in order to improve life satisfaction of university students, who are in a stage of life characterized by many challenges, stress for different reasons, nutritional vulnerability and the possibility of facing health-related problems, both physically and mentally, that will negatively impact their future quality of life. In addition, our findings show that improving SWFoL, SWFaL and intangible family support is important for both female and male students.

This study was conducted in accordance with the recommendations of the Ethics Committee of the Universidad de La Frontera, with the written informed consent of all subjects. All subjects gave written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The protocol was approved by Ethics Committee of the Universidad de La Frontera.

BS idealized and wrote the first manuscript draft and approved the statistical analysis. EM-Z guided the statistical analysis and made a critical analysis of the final version of the manuscript. GL, MD, and HP supervised data collection and made a critical analysis of the final version of the manuscript. KG made a critical analysis of the final version of the manuscript. CH prepared the literature review. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.