Interparental Conflict and Late Adolescents' Sensitization to Conflict: The Moderating Effects of Emotional Functioning and Gender

Parent-child conflict in Mexican-origin families: Charting development from adolescence to young adulthood

Grounded in developmental and cultural-ecological perspectives, the current study examined trajectories of parent-youth conflict regarding everyday issues across adolescence and into young adulthood. Data came from 246 Mexican-origin families in the southwestern United States with younger siblings (51% female, Mage  = 12.8, SD = 0.58), older siblings (Mage  = 15.5, SD = 1.57), mothers (Mage  = 39.0; SD = 4.6), and fathers (Mage  = 41.7; SD = 5.8) and were collected at four time points over an 8-year period. Multilevel modeling analyses revealed linear declines in mother-youth and father-youth conflict across ages 12-22. Youth, but not parent, familism values were associated with variation in parent-youth conflict. This study extends understanding of culturally and developmentally salient processes of mother-youth and father-youth relationships in Mexican-origin families.

Emotional Reactivity to Daily Family Conflicts: Testing the Within-Person Sensitization

Although the sensitization hypothesis posits that heightened reactivity to interparental conflict is linked to adolescent psychopathology, limited studies tested whether sensitization would emerge in parent-adolescent conflict and across ethnicity or culture. This study revisits the sensitization hypothesis by examining adolescent emotional reactivity to interparental and parent-adolescent conflicts on a daily timescale. The sample included 163 adolescents (55% girls; Mage  = 12.79) and their parents (78% females; Mage  = 45.46) who completed a 10-day reports in Taiwan. Multilevel modeling results showed that, instead of interparental conflict, adolescents with greater histories of parent-adolescent conflict exhibited higher emotional reactivity when parent-adolescent conflict was higher. The findings underscore the importance of parent-adolescent conflict in evaluating adolescent developmental risk.

Non-Residential Father-Child Involvement, Interparental Conflict and Mental Health of Children Following Divorce: A Person-Focused Approach

Variable-centered research has found complex relationships between child well-being and two critical aspects of the post-divorce family environment: the level of non-residential father involvement (i.e., contact and supportive relationship) with their children and the level of conflict between the father and mother. However, these analyses fail to capture individual differences based on distinct patterns of interparental conflict, father support and father contact. Using a person-centered latent profile analysis, the present study examined (1) profiles of non-residential father contact, support, and interparental conflict in the 2 years following divorce (N = 240), when children (49 % female) were between 9 and 12 years of age and (2) differences across profiles in concurrent child adjustment outcomes as well as outcomes 6 years later. Four profiles of father involvement were identified: High Contact-Moderate Conflict-Moderate Support, Low Contact-Moderate Conflict-Low Support, High Conflict-Moderate Contact-Moderate Support, and Low Conflict-Moderate Contact-Moderate Support. Concurrently, children with fathers in the group with high conflict were found to have significantly greater internalizing and externalizing problems compared to all other groups. Six years later, children with fathers in the group with low contact and low support were found to have greater internalizing and externalizing problems compared to children with fathers in the high conflict group, and also greater internalizing problems compared to children with fathers in the low conflict group. These results provide insight into the complex relationship among non-residential fathers' conflict, contact, and support in child adjustment within divorcing families.

Changes in marital conflict and youths' responses across childhood and adolescence: a test of sensitization

Although the sensitization hypothesis is fundamental to process-oriented explanations of the effects of marital conflict on children, few longitudinal tests of the theory's propositions have been conducted. Hierarchical linear modeling was used in this prospective, longitudinal study (n = 297 families) to assess changes in the dimensions of responding to conflict (i.e., emotional, cognitive, and behavioral) for 3 consecutive years in youths between the ages of 8 and 19 years. Moreover, to test the notion of sensitization, analyses were conducted to examine whether change in marital conflict predicted change in children's responding across middle childhood and adolescence. Supporting the sensitization hypothesis, increases in exposure to hostile marital conflict were associated with increases in children's negative emotionality, threat, self-blame, and skepticism about resolution. With a few exceptions, the effects were largely consistent for boys and girls and for younger and older children.