Feeling like a family outsider while growing up and multidimensional well-being in adulthood: A cross-national outcome-wide analysis

Feeling excluded from one’s family during childhood can be distressing and may influence well-being into adulthood. This perception of being a family outsider is related to but distinct from constructs such as neglect, loneliness, and isolation, yet little research has examined feeling like a family outsider or its associations with adult outcomes across countries. Using Wave 1 data from the Global Flourishing Study, a sample of 202,898 individuals in 22 countries, this preregistered study examined retrospectively reported feeling like an outsider in one’s family while growing up and its associations with 48 multidimensional well-being indicators in adulthood. Outcome-wide regression analyses were estimated within each country, adjusting for sociodemographic and recalled childhood factors, and random-effects meta-analyses were used to pool estimates across countries. Meta-analyzed results showed that feeling like a family outsider while growing up was associated with worse adult psychological well-being, psychological distress, and social distress across most outcomes, as well as worse outcomes on several indicators of physical health, health behavior, and socioeconomic status. However, it was associated with better outcomes on select social and prosocial indicators. Meaningful differences were observed across countries, with stronger associations observed in many Western nations and weaker associations in several African countries.