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A Mediational Model of the Impact of Marital Conflict on Adolescent Adjustment in Intact and Divorced Families: The Role of Disrupted Parenting
Author(s) -
Fauber Robert,
Forehand Rex,
Thomas Amanda McCombs,
Wierson Michelle
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1990.tb02845.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , structural equation modeling , mathematics , statistics
The present study was concerned with the development and testing of a structural equation model wherein the relation of interparental conflict to the adjustment problems of young adolescents is mediated through its impact on 3 aspects of parenting behavior; lax control, psychological control, and parental rejection/withdrawal. The model was tested separately on a sample of 46 young adolescents from intact families and a group of 51 adolescents from recently divorced families. The hypothesis that most of the relation between marital conflict and adolescent adjustment problems could be explained through perturbations in the parent‐child relationship received considerable support; the only direct effect of conflict was on externalizing problems in the intact sample. The results also suggested that the mediational patterns were somewhat different for the 2 samples, and that the model accounts for a greater proportion of the variance in the adjustment problems of adolescents from intact homes than of those from recently divorced families.