Examining the Implications of Triangulation for Adolescents’ Appraisals of Interparental Conflict: A Daily Diary Study

• In Event: Advancing Developmental and Family Models of Risk: Explicating and Integrating Youth Triangulation into Parental Conflict

Abstract

The cognitive contextual framework draws attention to the mechanisms by which interparental conflict (IPC) accounts for risk to adolescent psychological adjustment (Grych & Fincham, 1990; Van Eldik et al., 2020). Frequent, intense, and poorly resolved IPC predict adolescents’ elevated threat appraisals and self-blaming attributions (Fosco & Grych, 2008). Adolescents’ threat and self-blame, in turn, are linked to internalizing and externalizing problems, diminished self-efficacy, and poor grades (e.g., Fosco & Feinberg, 2015; Fosco & Grych, 2016; McCauley et al., 2019). A separate process - adolescent direct involvement in their parents’ conflicts (i.e., triangulation) – is an established risk factor for internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and poor parent-adolescent relationship quality (Buehler & Welsh, 2009; Fosco et al., 2014; Fosco & Grych, 2010).

Although cognitive appraisals and triangulation are each established risk factors for adolescent maladjustment, they remain relatively siloed research foci. Integrating these two perspectives may yield a more nuanced and refined concept of how these processes work in concert with one another. Important steps in this direction include understanding a) how conflict properties shape risk for triangulation and b) how triangulation informs adolescents’ cognitive appraisals of IPC episodes. The current study aims to address these research gaps in two ways. First, we distinguish between-family differences in how daily fluctuations in IPC correspond to adolescent triangulation risk. Second, we evaluate within-person relations among daily fluctuations in triangulation and daily appraisals of IPC. Further, we examine between-family differences in how daily experiences of triangulation shape within-person fluctuations in adolescents’ threat and self-blame appraisals of daily IPC.

Study data were collected from 150 adolescents (Mage = 14.60, SDAge = 0.83) participating in the Penn State Family Life Optimizing Well-being (FLOW) study. Adolescents completed global measures of IPC, threat, self-blame, and triangulation, followed by 21 daily diary reports of situational IPC, threat, self-blame, and triangulation.

Multilevel models, disentangling within- and between-person effects, were conducted to evaluate our two research questions. Regarding the first study aim, presented in Table 1, we examined the degree to which situational and global conflict properties accounted for day-to-day fluctuations in triangulation. On days when IPC was higher than usual, adolescents reported increases in feeling triangulated into conflicts (γ_10 = .13, p < .01). However, the significant interaction between global IPC intensity and day’s IPC indicates that the within-person association was only found for adolescents in families that experience more intense IPC (Figure 1). This suggests that adolescents are less likely to be triangulated in families with less-intense conflicts.

Regarding the second study aim, presented in Table 2, we examined the extent to which adolescents’ situational and global experiences with triangulation accounted for day-to-day fluctuations in threat and self-blame appraisals. On days when adolescents reported increases in triangulation, they reported same-day increases in threat (γ_20 =.77, p < .01) and self-blame (γ_20 = .83, p < .01). Notably, daily triangulation was a more robust predictor of threat and self-blame than daily IPC. These findings suggest that triangulation is a potent driver of adolescents’ appraisals of IPC.

Authors

• Devin Malloy McCauley, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Presenting Author

• Gregory M Fosco, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author