Poster #100 - “Use Your Words”: The Role of Emotional Security on Parent-Adolescent Communication

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

Introduction.
Interparental Conflict and Emotional Security. The emotional security theory (EST; Davies & Cummings, 1994) empirically established that a child possesses a desire of safety within the family and that exposure to interparental conflict may affect the child’s security and adjustment outcomes. For example, destructive parental conflict threatens emotional security, also elevating emotional distress and risks of developing adjustment disorders (McCoy, Cummings, & Davies, 2009).
Parent-Adolescent Communication. Open communication is vital during adolescence, as it is the medium through which parents and adolescents re-establish and negotiate their roles and relationships (Lanz, Iafrate, Rosnati, & Scabini, 1999). Specifically, families with open communication engage in constructive conflict strategies and have equal control within the family, granting adolescents the freedom to develop positive self-perceptions to then handle everyday conflicts and challenges (Lanz, Iafrate, Rosnati, & Scabini, 1999).
Scant research has examined emotional security as a mediator of parent-adolescent communication. Further, given the influencing role of open communication during adolescence and the EST’s empirical use as an explanatory mechanism for social outcomes (Cummings & Davies, 2010), emotional security was expected to serve as a mediator between interparental conflict and quality of parent-adolescent communication.

Method. Baseline data from a larger intervention program were analyzed for the current project. Participants involved adolescents (N = 225) aged 11 to 17 years (Mage = 13) and their parents (N = 450) aged 27 to 62 years (Mage = 43). The study examined adolescents’ emotional security in the family (Security in the Interparental Subsystem Scale [SIS]; Davies, Forman, Rasi, & Stevens, 2002) and quality of communication with their parents (Parent-Adolescent Communication Scale [PACS]; Barnes & Olson, 2003), along with interparental conflict (O’Leary-Porter Scale [OPS]; Porter & O’Leary, 1980). A Baron & Kenny (1986) regression-based approach was employed to analyze the research model through the Baron & Kenny four steps for mediation.

Results. All tested pathways were significant in the expected direction. Interparental conflict significantly predicted quality of parent-adolescent communication (β = -.596, p < .001). When including emotional security as a mediator, interparental conflict significantly predicted emotional security (β = 1.048, p < .01), and emotional security significantly predicted quality of parent-adolescent communication (β = -.262, p < .001). The relation between interparental conflict and parent-adolescent quality of communication remained significant (β = -.321, p < .030). Thus, in support of the hypothesis, emotional security partially mediated the relation between interparental conflict and parent-adolescent communication (see Figure 1).

Conclusions. Addressing the dearth in literature of emotional security influencing parent-adolescent communication, results indicated that increased interparental conflict undermined adolescents’ sense of security in the family, in turn hindering parent-adolescent communication. Although previous research elucidates the importance of emotional security in parent-child relationships (e.g., attachment) during infancy, the current research highlights its significance throughout adolescence. These findings give impetus to new projects and workshops aimed towards educating at-risk families about appropriate strategies to improve communication and emotional security. Additional analyses are ongoing to examine emotional security subscales (e.g., emotional reactivity) and dimensions of parent-adolescent communication (e.g., open communication, problems in communication).

Authors

• Gabriela Aquino, St. Mary's University
  Presenting Author

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

• Abigail Mills, University of Notre Dame
  Non-Presenting Author

• Patrick Davies, University of Rochester
  Non-Presenting Author