Who We Are as Parents: Parental Identity and Well-Being Across Cultures

Drawing on identity theory and self-complexity theory, this study examines whether parental identity centrality helps explain cross-national and gendered variation in parents’ subjective well-being. Using nationally representative data from the UK and Portugal of parents, we compare the centrality of different role identities and investigate how parental identity centrality relates to life satisfaction through positive and negative affect. Consistent with individualism–collectivism frameworks, parents in the UK reported more central parental identities, whereas Portuguese parents attributed greater importance to identities beyond the nuclear family. In both countries, higher parental identity centrality was associated with lower positive affect and life satisfaction. Positive affect consistently mediated the association between parental identity centrality and life satisfaction across countries. Negative affect, however, functioned as a mediator only among fathers in the UK. Overall, the findings suggest that when the parental role becomes overly central within the self-concept, it may limit engagement in other meaningful domains.