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

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Interparental Conflict (IPC) has repeatedly been related to children’s adjustment problems. Next steps in research are to further investigate the processes and contexts that explain these relations. The current symposium expands on the cross-cultural study of the impact of interparental conflict on child adjustment, including tests of theory (i.e., emotional security theory, Davies & Cummings, 1994) across multiple cultural contexts. A first paper based on responses from 381 Norwegian youth supported direct relations between IPC and adjustment problems, and indirect effects mediated by emotional insecurity. A second paper based on 141 Italian families (mothers, fathers, adolescents) indicated that the effects of IPC on adjustment were mediated by multiple types of emotional insecurity, including parent-child attachment insecurity, children’s emotional insecurity within the interparental system, and children’s emotional insecurity in the broader family system. A third paper presented evidence validating two widely used measures of children’s responses to interparental conflict and emotional security based on a sample of 392 Norwegian youth, and also advanced support for more concise, and therefore more accessible, versions of each of these scales. Finally, based on a sample of 135 adolescents from intact and divorced families from Tehran, Iran, evidence was found for both direct and indirect (through parental depressive symptoms but not emotional insecurity) effects of IPC on adolescent adjustment, with stronger relations for divorced than intact families. The findings consistently supported the impact on IPC on child adjustment, but expanded the study of the processes, contexts and methods for understanding these effects.

Sub Unit

• Family Context & Processes

Chair

• E. Mark Cummings, University of Notre Dame

Individual Presentations

• Examining the link between interparental conflict and adolescents’ adjustment in Iranian divorced and intact families - Presenting Author: Mengyu Gao, University of Notre Dame; Non-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

• Effects of Interparental Conflict on Italian Adolescents’ Adjustment: Mediations Involving Emotional Insecurity Within the Family - Presenting Author: Aryanne D de Silva, University of Notre Dame; Non-Presenting Author: Mengyu Gao, University of Notre Dame; Non-Presenting Author: Daniela Barni, LUMSA University of Rome; Non-Presenting Author: Silvia Donato, Catholic University of Milan; Non-Presenting Author: Laura Miller-Graff, University of Notre Dame; Non-Presenting Author: E. Mark Cummings, University of Notre Dame

• Emotional Security as Mediator of Conflict and Adjustment in a Norwegian Sample - Presenting Author: Anh Ha, University of Notre Dame; Non-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

• Assessing Children’s Responses to Interparental Conflict: Developing and Validating Concise Scales for a Scandinavian Country - Presenting Author: Tonje Holt, Norwegian Institute of Public Health; Non-Presenting Author: Maren Sand Helland, Norwegian Institute of Public Helath; Non-Presenting Author: Anh Ha, University of Notre Dame; Non-Presenting Author: E. Mark Cummings, University of Notre Dame