Implications of interparental conflict for adolescents' peer relationships: A longitudinal pathway through threat appraisals and social anxiety symptoms

The associations between interparental conflict and adolescent adjustment: a cross-lagged panel network analysis

Extensively studied in interparental relationship literature suggests interparental conflict is a risk factor for adolescent adjustment, but the specific, dimension level relationships between interparental conflict and adolescent adjustment remain unclear. This study explored the interactions between the various dimensions of interparental conflict and adolescent adjustment in Chinese adolescents. A total of 1870 Chinese adolescents (42.27% males; Mage = 16.18, SD = 0.43, range = 15-18) completed a survey at two time points spaced three months apart. Data was analyzed using both cross-sectional and longitudinal network analysis. The cross-sectional network analysis found that resolution has the greatest connections with the dimensions of adolescent adjustment, suggesting that adolescents reporting high resolution are more prone to experience concurrent poor adjustment and therefore should be a primary focus of attention. The longitudinal network analysis revealed that, in general, previous hyperactivity-inattention is a significant and strong predictor of future interparental conflict, underscoring a child-driven effect. Meanwhile, prosocial behavior contributes to decreases in both interparental conflict and adjustment problems over time. These findings highlight the importance of addressing hyperactivity-inattention and cultivating prosocial behavior in adolescents as key intervention points-these can help resolve conflicts between parents and reduce adjustment problems for adolescents.

The longitudinal role of family conflict and neural reward sensitivity in youth's internalizing symptoms

Adolescence is often associated with an increase in psychopathology. Although previous studies have examined how family environments and neural reward sensitivity separately play a role in youth's emotional development, it remains unknown how they interact with each other in predicting youth's internalizing symptoms. Therefore, the current research took a biopsychosocial approach to examine this question using two-wave longitudinal data of 9353 preadolescents (mean age = 9.93 years at T1; 51% boys) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study. Using mixed-effects models, results showed that higher family conflict predicted youth's increased internalizing symptoms 1 year later, whereas greater ventral striatum (VS) activity during reward receipt predicted reduced internalizing symptoms over time. Importantly, there was an interaction effect between family conflict and VS activity. For youth who showed greater VS activation during reward receipt, high family conflict was more likely to predict increased internalizing symptoms. In contrast, youth with low VS activation during reward receipt showed high levels of internalizing symptoms regardless of family conflict. The findings suggest that youth's neural reward sensitivity is a marker of susceptibility to adverse family environments and highlight the importance of cultivating supportive family environments where youth experience less general conflict within the family.

Longitudinal association between interparental conflict and risk-taking behavior among Chinese adolescents: testing a moderated mediation model

BACKGROUND

The interparental conflict has been associated with an increased adolescents' engagement in risk-taking behaviors. However, few studies have examined the potential mediation of deviant peer affiliation and the potential moderation of school climate. Grounded in the ecological system theory, this study aimed to explore the mediating role of deviant peer affiliation and the moderating role of school climate between the association of interparental conflict and risk-taking behavior.

METHODS

This study conducted a longitudinal design (3 time points, 3 months apart) with the sample comprising 550 middle school students in southeastern China (52.91% males; mean age at Time 1 = 15.37). The performed measurements encompassed interparental conflict (T1), deviant peer affiliation (T2), school climate (T3), risk-taking behavior (T1/T2/T3), and demographic information.

RESULTS

The moderated mediation model revealed that after controlling for T1/T2 risk-taking behavior, T1 interparental conflict was longitudinally and positively correlated with T3 risk-taking behavior through T2 deviant peer affiliation. Furthermore, moderated mediation analysis demonstrated that a positive school climate ameliorated the adverse impact of deviant peer affiliation on risk-taking behavior, thereby mitigating the indirect effect of interparental conflict on risk-taking behavior among adolescents.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings propose a nuanced explanation of the processing mechanisms between interparental conflict and risk-taking behaviors among Chinese adolescents. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Destructive interparental conflict affects Chinese children’s emotional and behavioral problems: Indirect pathways via parent–child attachment and emotional insecurity

Background

Previous studies have demonstrated that destructive interparental conflict (IPC) is closely related to the emergence of emotional and behavioral problems in adolescents. In addition, in the family system, such conflict also affects the patent–child attachment relationship and emotional insecurity of adolescents.

Objectives

This study mainly explores the relationship between destructive interparental conflict and adolescents’ emotional and behavioral problems, focuses on the role of parent–child attachment and emotional insecurity, and analyzes whether this relationality plays multiple mediating roles in the influence of destructive interparental conflict on emotional and behavioral problems.

Methods

Data for the study were obtained through a questionnaire survey conducted on 524 Chinese adolescents from primary and junior high school.

Results

Structural equation modeling was conducted to test direct and indirect pathways between destructive interparental conflict and Chinese adolescents’ emotional and behavioral problems. Destructive IPC negatively predicted parent–child attachment and parent–child attachment negatively predicted emotional and behavioral problems. Destructive Interparental conflict positively predicted emotional insecurity and emotional insecurity positively predicted emotional and behavioral problems.

Discussion

The results show that: (1) Parent–child attachment negatively predicted emotional and behavioral problems, and emotional insecurity positively predicted the same. (2) Parent–child attachment and emotional insecurity act in a multiple mediating role between destructive IPC and adolescents’ emotional and behavioral problems. (3) Parent–child attachment and emotional insecurity constitute two indirect pathways between destructive IPC and adolescents’ emotional and behavioral problems, respectively.

Conclusion

Destructive IPC can adversely affect emotional and behavioral problems among adolescents; destructive IPC plays a damaging role in their emotional security and parent–child attachment, consequently effecting emotional and behavioral problems.

A Study of Family Process Factors of Social Anxiety on the Internet Based on Big Data-Take Guangxi University Students as an Example

Background

Along with the popularization of the new medium of interpersonal communication, many researchers have found that the use of social media has brought about many mental health problems. For example, the virtual nature, vulnerability, and uncertainty of online communication lead to reduced online trust, causing interaction anxiety (IA). The data footprints left on the Internet are processed by malicious elements for big data, leading to the leakage of personal privacy data, bringing content sharing anxiety (SAC) and privacy concern anxiety (PAC), which are all typical forms of online social anxiety. In the face of this situation, analyzing the influence of online social networking on the social psychology of university students and guiding it has become an inevitable issue in the Internet era.

Methods

Learning from the classification of family environment, a self-administered family process factor questionnaire and the Social Anxiety Scale for Social Media Users (SAS-SMU) were used to investigate the online social anxiety of Guangxi University students. The study used SPSS26.0 and Stata for data analysis and descriptive statistics, ANOVA, t-test, and linear regression analysis were used to explore the relationship between family process factors and online social anxiety of the university students.

Results

The results showed that except for parental supervision (p > 0.05), the effects of interparental relationship, parent-child relationship, sibling relationship, and family atmosphere on university students' online social anxiety were statistically significant and showed positive correlations (F/t = 6.64, 3.53, 4.15, 5.94; p < 0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that university students' total online social anxiety score = 36.914-4.09 × good parental relationship-4.16 × good family atmosphere-3.42 × good sibling relationship.

Conclusions

Based on the family systems theory, it is suggested that a comprehensive intervention should be conducted for the coupled system (parental relationship) and sibling system (non-only child's sibling relationship) in the family and focus on the protective factors of parental harmony, sibling relationship harmony, and relaxed family atmosphere. In the specific implementation method, the collaborative shared healthcare plan (CSHCP) can be used to strengthen remote family emotional interaction and avoid Internet addiction. For university students with online social anxiety disorders, their personal health records (PHRs) can be maintained permanently and safely using the Star File System (IPFS), in addition to the convenience of IPFS data extraction, which is more conducive to the timely and long-term tracking treatment of anxious university students.

Distal and proximal family contextual effects on adolescents' interparental conflict appraisals: A daily diary study

Adolescent appraisals of interparental conflict (IPC)-perceiving IPC as threatening to their well-being or that of the family, and self-blaming attributions-are well-established processes through which IPC confers risk for developmental disruptions and psychopathology. Recent work documents intraindividual change in IPC and appraisals that occur on a daily timescale. However, considerably less is known about how the broader family context may temper appraisals of IPC. This study provides a novel examination of the implications of distal (global ratings of family relationships in general) and proximal (fluctuations in daily family relationships) family context (family cohesion, parent-adolescent closeness, and parent-adolescent conflict) for adolescents' propensity to form negative appraisals of daily IPC. This sample included 144 adolescents (63% female) in two-parent families, who participated in a 21-day daily diary study. Findings indicate that intraindividual variability in adolescents' perception of family cohesion, parent-adolescent closeness, and parent-adolescent conflict all correspond to adolescent appraisals of IPC through direct relations and moderating effects. Unique patterns emerged for boys and girls, suggesting gender differences in how adolescents incorporate the family context into their appraisals of IPC. This study expands our awareness of the importance of daily fluctuations in family relationships for adolescent risk during exposure to IPC. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Familial Factors in the Development of Social Anxiety Disorder

The purpose of the current article is to explore familial factors that influence the development of social anxiety disorder (SAD) in children and adolescents, including parenting, sibling relationships, and family environment. A multitude of interrelated genetic and familial factors have been found to cause and maintain SAD in children and adolescents. There are many challenges in diagnosing and treating the disorder. Knowledge and awareness of familial factors provide insight on targeted treatments that prevent or ameliorate SAD. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 59(7), 23-34.].

Children's attentional biases to emotions as sources of variability in their vulnerability to interparental conflict

Little is known about the role children's processing of emotions plays in altering children's vulnerability to interparental conflict. To address this gap, the present study examined whether the mediational cascade involving children's exposure to interparental conflict, their insecure responses to interparental conflict, and their psychological problems varied as a function of children's preexisting biases to attend to angry, fearful, sad, and happy expressions. Participants included 243 children (M age = 4.60 years) and their parents assessed at 3 annual measurement occasions. Moderated-mediation analyses within a cross-lagged autoregressive design indicated that the indirect paths among interparental conflict, emotional insecurity, and psychological problems were significant for children who exhibited greater attentional biases toward angry and fearful emotions. Greater attention to anger and fear specifically moderated the first link in the mediational path. Interparental conflict was a significantly stronger predictor of emotional insecurity for children who attended to angry and fearful cues longer. Consistent with environmental sensitivity theories, children with attentional biases to angry and fearful emotions exhibited disproportionately higher levels of emotional insecurity following exposure to heightened interparental conflict but also lower levels of emotional insecurity after experiencing minimal interparental conflict. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).