SYNOPSISObjective-This investigation was designed to shed light on household structure differences in mother -adolescent conflict.Design-Atotal of 453 early, mid, and late adolescents from 3 ethnic groups completed questionnaires describing the rate and affective intensity of daily conflicts with mothers and fathers in single-mother (divorced or never married), 2-biological-parent, and blended (remarried) families.Results-Compared to sons, daughters reported more disagreements with mothers and more negative affect in disagreements with mothers and fathers. Adolescents reported more total disagreements and more angry disagreements with single mothers than with mothers in 2-biologicalparent families; adolescents in blended families fell in between. Reports of conflict with fathers did not differ across 2-biological-parent families and blended families. There were no household structure differences in conflict with parents (mothers and residential fathers combined), indicating that levels of conflict with single mothers are elevated by approximately the same number of disagreements that otherwise fall to fathers in 2-parent households. Potential moderators (adolescent age, ethnicity, and gender, maternal employment, prior marital status of single-mothers, socioeconomic status, and levels of social interaction) did not alter the results.Conclusions-For adolescents, single parenthood restricts the number of partners available for disagreement but has little bearing on the number or affective tenor of daily disagreements with mothers. In contrast, single parenthood is associated with elevated levels of family discord for mothers.
INTRODUCTIONIt is estimated that over half of all children born in the United States today will spend time in a single-parent household (Weinraub, Horvath, & Gringlas, 2002). One consequence of this rising tide of single parenthood appears to be an altered incidence of conflict during the adolescent years. Several studies report that mothers and adolescents in divorced single-mother households experience more negativity and conflict than those in two-biological-parent households (Baer, 1999;Demo & Acock, 1996;Hagan, Hollier, O'Connor, & Eisenberg, 1992;Henderson & Taylor, 1999;Hetherington, 1972;Hetherington, Cox, & Cox, 1985;Walker & Hennig, 1997;Wallerstein & Kelley, 1980), but the nature of these differences has yet to be specified. One obvious conclusion is that single parenthood exacerbates conflict between mothers and adolescent children, but this overlooks the possibility that rates of mother -adolescent conflict may be traced to variables that are confounded with household structure. In this investigation, early, mid, and late adolescents from single-mother (divorced or never married), blended (remarried), and two-biological-parent families described the rate and NIH Public Access
NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript affective intensity of daily disagreements with mothers and fathers to determine whether household structure differences in mother ...