Prospective Relations between Family Conflict and Adolescent Maladjustment: Security in the Family System as a Mediating Process

Abstract

Conflict in specific family systems (e.g., interparental, parent-child) has been implicated in the development of a host of adjustment problems in adolescence, but little is known about the impact of family conflict involving multiple family systems. Furthermore, questions remain about the effects of family conflict on symptoms of specific disorders and adjustment problems and the processes mediating these effects. The present study prospectively examines the impact of family conflict and emotional security about the family system on adolescent symptoms of specific disorders and adjustment problems, including the development of symptoms of anxiety, depression, conduct problems, and peer problems. Security in the family system was examined as a mediator of these relations. Participants included 295 mother-father-adolescent families (149 girls) participating across three annual time points (grades 7–9). Including auto-regressive controls for initial levels of emotional insecurity and multiple adjustment problems (T1), higher-order emotional insecurity about the family system (T2) mediated relations between T1 family conflict and T3 peer problems, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Further analyses supported specific patterns of emotional security/insecurity (i.e., security, disengagement, preoccupation) as mediators between family conflict and specific domains of adolescent adjustment. Family conflict was thus found to prospectively predict the development of symptoms of multiple specific adjustment problems, including symptoms of depression, anxiety, conduct problems, and peer problems, by elevating in in adolescent’s emotional insecurity about the family system. The clinical implications of these findings are considered.

The Multivariate Roles of Family Instability and Interparental Conflict in Predicting Children’s Representations of Insecurity in the Family System and Early School Adjustment Problems

“…Although no investigations, to our knowledge, have directly tested this mediational pathway, some empirical findings provide indirect support for our hypothesis. For example, Cummings, Koss, and Davies (2015) found that adolescents’ perceptions of insecurity in the family unit mediated the association between triadic conflicts (i.e., mother, father, and teen) and their adjustment problems. However, it is unclear whether these pathways operate in the context of conflicts between parents that do not directly involve the children.…”

Family dynamics and alcohol and marijuana use among adolescents: The mediating role of negative emotional symptoms and sensation seeking

“…In this respect, a number of studies argue that family conflicts lead to negative emotional states in adolescents (Cummings, Koss, & Davies, 2015), and that such negative emotional states can co-occur with other impulsive behaviors (Saddichhaa & Schuetzb, 2014;Tomko et al, 2014). This comorbidity occurs due to the fact that internal problems (negative emotional symptoms) tend to be expressed through external ones (Cataldo, Nobile, Lorusso, Battaglia, & Molteni, 2005;Kolvin & Sadowski, 2001), such as sensation seeking, which consist in the exploration of situations and new and intense sensations that usually go hand-in-hand with social, physical and/or legal risks (Zuckerman, 1994).…”

Emotional Security Theory

“…In addition to the effects of intimate-partner violence on children's emotional security, widespread family conflict (including interparental conflict and parent-child conflict) has also been identified as a social-ecological risk factor (Cummings, Koss, & Davies, 2015). Much of the research in this domain has focused on the complex interactions between family-wide conflict and parent psychopathology.…”