A mediational model of the impact of marital conflict on adolescent adjustment in intact and divorced families: the role of disrupted parenting.
The present study was concerned with the development and testing of a structural equation model wherein the relation of interparental conflict to the adjustment problems of young adolescents is mediated through its impact on 3 aspects of parenting behavior: lax control, psychological control, and parental rejection/withdrawal. The model was tested separately on a sample of 46 young adolescents from intact families and a group of 51 adolescents from recently divorced families. The hypothesis that most of the relation between martial conflict and adolescent adjustment problems could be explained through perturbations in the parent-child relationship received considerable support; the only direct effect of conflict was on externalizing problems in the intact sample. The results also suggested that the mediational patterns were somewhat different for the 2 samples, and that the model accounts for a greater proportion of the variance in the adjustment problems of adolescents from intact homes than of those from recently divorced families.
Fauber
R
R
Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122.
Forehand
R
R
Thomas
A M
AM
Wierson
M
M
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D004243:Divorce / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010553:Personality Development; D010555:Personality Inventory