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Rethinking Conflict: Parenting Style Moderates the Association Between Parent Conflict and Adolescent Coping

Wed, April 7, 3:15 to 4:15pm EDT (3:15 to 4:15pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

Parent-adolescent conflict has been shown to be a risk factor for negative adolescent outcomes, including internalizing and externalizing problems (Weymouth et al., 2016). Despite these findings, it is possible that conflict can be constructive and beneficial, depending on the situation in which it arises. For example, in supportive environments, conflict may facilitate adolescent growth and development by allowing adolescents to refine new skills and increase responsibilities within the parent-adolescent relationship. These skills and responsibilities gained may allow adolescents to develop stronger coping mechanisms to deal with the challenges that they face. On the other hand, negative relationship quality has been shown to exacerbate the relation between parent-adolescent conflict and adolescent outcomes, predicting poor school grades and higher rates of delinquency, and withdrawal (Adams & Laursen, 2007). However, further research is needed on how other factors of the parent-adolescent relationship, like parenting style, impact the association between parent-adolescent conflict and adolescent outcomes. In this study, we examined the moderating effect of parenting style on the relation between parent-adolescent conflict and adolescent coping mechanisms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participants (N=291, 54% female) were part of a longitudinal study. Parent-adolescent conflict at age 15 was reported by the adolescent using the Network of Relationships Inventory (Furman & Buhrmester, 1985). Parenting style at age 15 was reported by the parent using the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen, Hart, 1995). Adolescent coping at age 15 and during the COVID-19 pandemic, when adolescents were approximately 18 years old, was measured with the Brief COPE (Carver, 1997). Here, we examined positive thinking and avoidance, two distinct coping styles.

Regression analysis revealed two main moderation effects. First, parental warmth and involvement moderated the relationship between parent-adolescent conflict and positive thinking, p = .0482, even after controlling for positive thinking at age 15, such that parent-adolescent conflict predicted increases in positive coping only among those whose parents reported high levels of warmth. Additionally, parenting self-confidence moderated the relationship between parent-adolescent coping and avoidant coping, p = .0118, even after controlling for avoidant coping at age 15, such that parent-adolescent conflict predicted increases in avoidant coping only among those whose parents reported low levels of self-confidence in their parenting abilities.

These findings support the notion that conflict is not always detrimental, but depends on the environment in which it arises. In instances of high parental warmth and involvement, conflict may have allowed adolescents to gain coping skills, like positive thinking, that they might not have gained otherwise. These results indicate that targeting elements of parenting style, like warmth and involvement and self-confidence, may be a potential avenue for mitigating the negative impacts of adolescent-parent conflict by strengthening adolescent coping mechanisms. These coping mechanisms may prove to be critical in stressful life events, like the COVID-19 pandemic. Future research should further explore how parent-adolescent conflict can be constructive and what elements of parent-adolescent relationships serve to mitigate the negative consequences of high parent-adolescent conflict.

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