title: Cascading effects of interparental conflict in adolescence: Linking threat appraisals, self-efficacy, and adjustment.
abstract: This study examined the longitudinal implications of adolescents' exposure to interparental conflict for their developmental success. In the proposed developmental cascade model, adolescents' perceptions of parental conflict as threatening is a risk factor for diminished self-efficacy, which would account for diminished adjustment. This study presents longitudinal data for 768 sixth-grade students and their families over four time points, ending in eighth grade. Analyses were conducted in three steps. First, replication of longitudinal support for threat as a mediator of the link between interparental conflict and emotional distress was found; however, findings did not support threat as a mediator of behavior problems or subjective well-being. Second, threat was found to mediate the longitudinal association between interparental conflict and self-efficacy. Third, a developmental cascade model supported a risk process in which interparental conflict was related to adolescents' threat appraisals, which undermined self-efficacy beliefs, and was then linked with emotional distress, behavior problems, and subjective well-being.
authors.affiliation: Pennsylvania State University.
authors.forename: Gregory M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Fosco
authors.affiliation: Pennsylvania State University.
authors.forename: Mark E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Feinberg
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D054541:Family Conflict / Q000523:psychology*; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D000066553:Problem Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012917:Social Adjustment