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Poster #160 - The Mediating Role of Disengaged Patterns of Emotional Insecurity on Parenting Practices and Adolescent Adjustment

Fri, March 22, 2:30 to 3:45pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

Purpose: Based on emotional security theory (EST, Davies & Cummings, 1994), the psychological process of emotional security has been extended to a family-wide construct hypothesized as influenced by multiple family relations, including parent-child relations, interparental and family conflict, and other family relationships (Forman & Davies, 2005). For example, when exposed to elevated levels of family conflict, adolescents’ emotional security about the family is undermined, increasing adolescents’ risk for developing adjustment problems (Cummings, Koss, & Davies, 2015). Associations between interparental and family conflict, emotional insecurity about family relations, and risks for adolescent psychopathology are well established (Cummings & Davies, 2010). However, other factors within the family are candidates to influence adolescent’s emotional security about the family. Extending the scope of past work on relations between family factors, emotional security about the family, and adolescent adjustment, this work explores relations between ineffective parenting practices, emotional insecurity, specifically, disengaged patterns (Cummings et al., 2015), and adolescents’ externalizing behavior problems. The hypothesis is that emotional insecurity about the family will operate as a mediating mechanism between parenting practices (e.g., inconsistent discipline) and externalizing behavior problems in adolescents.

Procedures: Data (N = 250) consisted of family triads comprised of a mother, father, and adolescent and were drawn from a larger, longitudinal study on family functioning. On average, participating adolescents were 14.9 years (SD = 0.7 years), participating mothers were 44.2 years (SD = 6.0 years), and participating fathers were 45.8 years (SD = 7.1 years). Parents completed self-report measures of their parenting practices (Alabama Parenting Questionnaire) and completed parent-reports of their adolescent’s psychological functioning (Child Behavior Checklist). Adolescents completed a measure of their emotional security about the family (Forman & Davies, 2005).

Results: Disengaged patterns of emotional insecurity about the family mediated the links between inconsistent discipline and adolescent delinquency and aggressive behaviors. Results indicated that inconsistent discipline significantly predicted emotional insecurity (b = .329, p = .005) and that emotional insecurity, then, significantly predicted both delinquency and aggressive behaviors (b = .052, p = .014 and b = .134, p = .032, respectively), supporting the hypothesis that emotional insecurity operated as a mediating mechanism in the relations between inconsistent discipline and delinquency and aggressive behaviors in adolescents. In both models, the influence of inconsistent discipline was reduced, although not eliminated, after controlling for emotional insecurity. Future analyses will examine the role of additional family factors relating to emotional insecurity in the family as predictors of adolescents’ adjustment problems.

Conclusions and Interpretations: Consistent with Cummings et al.’s (2015) finding of links between disengaged patterns of emotional insecurity about family and externalizing problems, the present analyses demonstrated that inconsistent discipline decreased adolescents’ disengaged patterns of emotional insecurity about family, increasing the likelihood of adolescents’ externalizing behaviors. These results suggest that ineffective parenting methods put adolescent’s emotional security about the family at risk, which then may lead to poor adjustment outcomes. We hope that this work supports more effective prevention and intervention programs for parents about effective parenting practices, specifically stressing the importance of consistent discipline.

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