Parent’s Marital Satisfaction Relieving the Adolescent Child’s Distress via Safety Belief

Adolescent distress poses significant well-being challenges, yet family-level protective factors remain underexplored. Grounded in attachment theory, this study examines safety belief as a mediator linking parental marital satisfaction to reduced adolescent distress, while testing robustness across demographic variations. Using data from a sample of 310 Chinese parent-adolescent dyads, sequential regression analyses revealed: (1) Parental marital satisfaction significantly predicted heightened parental safety belief; (2) Marital satisfaction directly reduced adolescent distress; and (3) Safety belief mediated this relationship, further diminishing distress. Critically, these pathways remained robust against parental/adolescent gender, age, and education, with no significant moderating effects observed. The findings affirm attachment theory’s universality, demonstrating that marital satisfaction—via safety—consistently safeguards adolescent well-being across diverse backgrounds. This underscores the value of promoting marital quality and safety-focused interventions to prevent adolescent distress, irrespective of sociodemographic contexts