Everyday Conflict in Families at Risk for Violence Exposure: Examining Unique, Bidirectional Associations with Children's Anxious- and Withdrawn-Depressed Symptoms

Exposure to family conflict during childhood increases risk for the development of anxiety and mood problems, though the potential for bidirectionality in this association remains unknown. It is also unclear whether nonviolent family conflict is related to children's anxious- and withdrawn-depressive symptoms within high-risk family contexts, independent of more severe events such as children's exposure to violent victimization. Participants included 1,281 children and their caregivers identified as being at high risk for family violence, interviewed prospectively at ages 6, 8, and 10 about family conflict, children's anxious- and withdrawn-depressive behaviors, and children's victimization experiences. After controlling for cumulative victimization prior to and between each time point, significant cross-lagged, bidirectional associations were identified between family conflict and children's anxious- and withdrawn-depressive symptoms across ages 6 and 8, but not across ages 8 and 10. Invariance testing revealed no differences in model fit between boys and girls and minimal differences depending on whether families were reported for maltreatment prior to recruitment. Findings are partially supportive of a conceptualization of the family-child relationship that is reciprocal, while highlighting the role of daily negative familial interactions, over and above experiences of victimization, in predicting anxious- and withdrawn-depressed symptoms in early and middle childhood.

Adolescent Mental Health and Family Economic Hardships: The Roles of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Family Conflict

Rising and economically disproportionate rates of adverse mental health outcomes among children and youth warrant research investigating the complex pathways stemming from socioeconomic status. While adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been considered a possible mechanism linking socioeconomic status (SES) and child and youth psychopathology in previous studies, less is understood about how family environments might condition these pathways. Using data from a longitudinal, multiple-wave study, the present study addresses this gap by examining the direct relationships between family economic status and youth internalizing and externalizing symptoms, if ACEs mediate these relationships, and if conflictual family environments moderate these direct and indirect relationships. The data were obtained from 5510 youth participants [mean age at baseline = 9.52 (SD = 0.50), 47.7% female, 2.1% Asian, 10.3% Black, 17.6% Hispanic, 9.8% Multiracial/Multiethnic, 60.2% White] and their caretakers from the baseline, 1-year, and 2-year follow up waves. Conditional process analysis assessed the direct, indirect, and moderated relationships in separate, equivalent models based on youth- versus caregiver-raters of ACEs and youth psychopathology to capture potential differences based on the rater. The results of both the youth- and caregiver-rated models indicated that lower family economic status directly predicted higher levels of externalizing symptoms, and ACEs indirectly accounted for higher levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Additionally, family conflict moderated some, but not all, of these relationships. The study's findings highlight that lower family economic status and ACEs, directly and indirectly, contribute to early adolescent psychopathology, and conflictual family environments can further intensify these relationships. Implementing empirically supported policies and interventions that target ACEs and family environments may disrupt deleterious pathways between SES and youth psychopathology.

Conflict Resolution and Emotional Expression in Sibling and Mother-Adolescent Dyads: Within-Family and Across-Context Similarities

Early adolescents (aged 12-15) were observed during dyadic conflict discussions with their siblings ( n = 23) and mothers ( n = 32) in their homes. The verbal conflict behaviors and affect of family members were coded continuously. Sequential analyses identified temporal associations between individuals’ affect and their own and their partners’ verbal conflict behaviors. In addition, within-family and across-context similarities in behavior were examined. Results revealed that while many links between emotion and behavior were consistent with previous research (e.g., attack/assert when frowning/upset, withdraw/concede when sad), several differences emerged depending on the relationship (sibling vs. mother-adolescent) and position in the family (e.g., adolescent vs. mother). Furthermore, many within-family similarities were observed in responses to emotion, while adolescents showed few similarities in their behavior across contexts. Results are discussed in relation to the developmental context of early adolescence and family systems theory.