Examining the link between interparental conflict and adolescents’ adjustment in Iranian divorced and intact families

• In Event: 2-012 - Interparental Conflict, Emotional Security and Child Adjustment: Cross-Cultural Studies Exploring Processes, Contexts and Methods

Integrative Statement

Exposure to interparental conflict takes a toll on adolescents’ functioning (Emery, 1982; Grych & Finchman, 1990). Multiple mechanisms may mediate these effects including adolescents’ heightened emotional insecurity (Davies & Cummings, 1994) and heightened parental depressive symptoms (e.g., Papp, Goeke-Morey, & Cummings, 2007). For example, marital discord may contribute to parents’ depressive symptomatology (Amato, 2000), putting the offspring at greater risk for maladjusted outcomes (Cummings & Davies, 1994; Kelly, 2000).

Study of the negative impact and underlying processes of interparental conflict, however, has been largely limited to European American and intact families. Empirical investigations in diverse familial and cultural backgrounds are needed to advance understanding of the effects of interparental conflict. By studying these topics with a sample of Iranian divorced and intact families, the present study expands investigation of the consequence of interparental conflict to include a conservative culture. Norms surrounding family dynamics and divorce in Iran differ dramatically from those in the US, with the 2006 rate in the US being 5.5 divorces per 1000 of the population; the rate is less than half of that in Iran (Aghajanian & Thompson, 2013). This study thus expands study of the processes and contexts of interparental conflict to include multiple family processes (i.e., emotional security, parental depressive symptoms) and multiple contexts (i.e., divorced vs. intact families, Iranian families).

75 intact and 60 divorced parent-adolescent (child age M = 12.06, sd = 2.06) dyads were recruited through schools and community services in Tehran, Iran. Parents completed the O’Leary-Porter Scale (OPS; Porter & O’Leary, 1980) to assess interparental conflict and the Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977) to assess their depressive symptoms. Adolescents’ adjustment difficulties and prosocial behaviors were measured by subscales of the parent-report Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman 1997). Adolescents completed the Security in the Interparental Subsystem scale (SIS; Davies, Forman, Rasi, & Stevens, 2002) to assess their emotional security.

Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics and correlations for all study variables. In the full sample, greater interparental conflict was associated with adolescents having more adjustment problems (𝛾 = .345, p < .001) and fewer prosocial behaviors (𝛾 = -.230, p = .006). Parental depressive symptoms mediated the influence of interparental conflict on adolescents’ functioning (95% confidence interval for the indirect effect is .05– .25 for adjustment problems; -.10 to -.02 for prosocial behaviors). Adolescents’ emotional security did not mediate these relations. Moderated mediation analyses showed that the links between parental depressive symptoms and adolescents’ outcomes were only evident for divorced, but not intact, families (see Table 2).

Consistent with studies of European American samples, interparental conflict negatively affected adolescents’ adjustment, particularly for divorced families in Iran. Parental depressive symptomatology, rather than adolescents’ emotional security, mediated these effects. The salient role of parental depressive symptoms may be due to the tremendous psychological stress created by the social taboo of divorce in Iranian culture. Our study highlights the importance of including diverse familial and cultural contexts in examining the effects of interparental conflict on adolescents.

Authors

• Mengyu Gao, University of Notre Dame
  Presenting Author

• Aryanne D de Silva, University of Notre Dame
  Non-Presenting Author

• Faramarz Asanjarani, University of Isfahan
  Non-Presenting Author

• E. Mark Cummings, University of Notre Dame
  Non-Presenting Author