Emotional Security as Mediator of Conflict and Adjustment in a Norwegian Sample

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

Integrative Statement

Emotional security has been shown to be a significant mechanism in elucidating the pathway between interparental conflict (IPC) and adjustment outcomes for children and adolescents in diverse cultural contexts, including in North American samples (Davies, Cummings, & Winter, 2004), Chinese samples (Li, Cheung, & Cummings, 2015), and Western European samples (Cummings, Goeke-Morey, Schermerhorn, Merrilees, & Cairns, 2009). However, few studies have examined the construct of emotional security in Scandinavian countries, which boast codified gender equality in legislations to allow for egalitarian parental contribution to childcare and to support disadvantaged families through social welfare systems (Malik, 2014). It can be posited that couples from countries with egalitarian gender roles and a more expansive social welfare network will exhibit lower IPC (Kotsadam & Finseraas, 2011); however, even with lower baseline IPC, the effect of IPC on children’s emotional security and adjustment outcomes may be expected to be similar to what has been observed in other cultural contexts. Thus, we hypothesize that, in a Norwegian context, emotional security will be a significant mediator between exposure to IPC and adjustment outcomes in children and adolescents.

Participants included 381 11-year-olds (198 girls, 174 boys, 9 undeclared) from a major metropolitan center in Norway who were recruited from families undergoing the mandatory mediation process as a prerequisite for divorce; thus, the sample may be characterized as at high risk for IPC. Children completed the Children’s Perception of Interparental Conflict (CPIC-properties; Grych, Seid, & Fincham, 1992), an assessment of exposure to IPC. Children also responded to the Security in the Interparental Subsystem scale (SIS; Davies, Forman, Rasi, & Stevens, 2002), which measures emotional security in reaction to IPC, and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1997), which measures adjustment outcomes. Externalizing problems were operationalized using an aggregate of the subscales Peer Problems, Conduct Problems, and Hyperactivity Problems of the SDQ, and internalizing problems were operationalized using the subscale Emotional Problems of the SDQ. Descriptive statistics and correlations for all study variables can be found in Table 1.

Cross-sectional mediation analyses of the relation between IPC and adolescent adjustment as mediated by emotional security were conducted. Test statistics and significance of all pathways can be found in Table 2. Using a bootstrap estimation approach with 1000 samples, both models showed significant indirect effect between IPC and internalizing and externalizing problems. Approximately 72% of the variance in externalizing problems (R2 = .719) and approximately 71% of the variance in internalizing problems (R2 = .708) was accounted for by the predictors. Exposure to IPC was associated with approximately .02 points increase in externalizing problems and .02 points increase in internalizing problems as mediated by emotional security.

The present findings are consistent with previous findings from diverse cultural contexts and suggest that although the incidence of conflicts in the family may differ for countries with egalitarian gender roles, the mechanism through which these conflicts affect children and adolescents may transcend cultural contexts and offer invaluable insight on opportunities for globalized prevention and intervention programs at a process level.

Authors

• Anh Ha, University of Notre Dame
  Presenting Author

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

• Tonje Holt, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
  Non-Presenting Author

• Maren Sand Helland, Norwegian Institute of Public Helath
  Non-Presenting Author