Interparental conflict as a curvilinear risk factor of youth emotional and cortisol reactivity.

Abstract

This study examined interparental conflict as a linear and curvilinear predictor of subsequent changes in adolescents’ negative emotional reactivity and cortisol functioning during family conflict and, in turn, their psychological difficulties. In addition, adolescents’ negative emotional reactivity and cortisol functioning during family conflict were examined as subsequent predictors of their psychological difficulties. Participants included 258 adolescents (52% girls) and their parents and teachers who participated in 3 annual measurement occasions. Adolescents were 13 years old on average (standard deviation [SD] = .57) at the first measurement occasion, were generally from middle- and working-class backgrounds, and identified mostly as White (e.g., 74%). The results of latent-difference score analyses indicated that a multimethod and multiinformant assessment of interparental conflict linearly predicted subsequent changes in observational ratings of adolescent emotional reactivity and their overall cortisol output in response to family conflict over a 1-year period. These changes, in turn, predicted increases in multiinformant reports of adolescent psychological problems over a 2-year period. However, the linear association in the first link in the cascade was qualified by the quadratic effects of interparental conflict as a predictor. Consistent with risk-saturation models, the relatively strong associations among interparental conflict and youth emotional reactivity and cortisol output at mild and moderate exposure to conflict weakened as exposure to conflict reached higher levels.

Interparental conflict as a quadratic predictor of children’s reactivity to interparental conflict and school adjustment: Steeling effects or risk saturation?

“…Conversely, children's levels of behavioral dysregulation reached a stable asymptote as the level of interparental conflict progressively increased from the moderate to high range. These results are consistent with recent curvilinear findings indicating that interparental conflict predicted a broad measure of adolescent negative reactivity (e.g., discomfort, distress, involvement, coerciveness) to a triadic disagreement with parents at low to moderate, but not high, levels of interparental conflict (Davies et al, 2020).…”

“…However, in this same study, prospective analyses failed to identify a quadratic risk effect. In further highlighting the empirical inconsistencies, there is only one published study to our knowledge that has tested interparental conflict as a curvilinear risk factor in the prediction of offspring functioning (Davies et al, 2020). In this study of adolescents, the significant curvilinear results supported the risk saturation model rather than the steeling effects model.…”

The Divorce Process and Child Adaptation Trajectory Typology (DPCATT) Model: The Shaping Role of Predivorce and Postdivorce Interparental Conflict

“…Considering a quadratic manner as suggested by the curvilinear models of risk sensitization (see Arbel et al, 2020 ; Repetti & Robles, 2016 ; Susman, 2006 ) may constitute a promising direction for future research in this field. To our knowledge, no study has tested such patterns specifically in divorce families, but research based on intact families has been emerging during the recent years (e.g., Davies et al, 2020 , 2021 ).…”

Longitudinal Psychological Family Studies in Austria: A Scoping Review

“…Given the complex interconnections of family relationships and their meaning for family members' well-being, sophisticated research of reciprocal family processes and dynamics is needed. Family psychology traditionally aimed to fill this gap, by providing insights into process-oriented explanations of family functioning and how best to prevent adjustment problems of family members and to promote a healthy family environment (e.g., Cummings et al 2008;Davies et al 2020;Author 2018). In several ways, family psychology can be regarded as a unique discipline with its focus on intrafamilial processes and the dynamic interchanges between relations in the family system (Parke 2017).…”