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Longitudinal Transmission of Conflict Management Styles Across Inter‐Parental and Adolescent Relationships
Author(s) -
Staats Soundry,
Valk Inge E.,
Meeus Wim H. J.,
Branje Susan J. T.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of research on adolescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.342
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1532-7795
pISSN - 1050-8392
DOI - 10.1111/jora.12324
Subject(s) - psychology , conflict management , conflict resolution , developmental psychology , style (visual arts) , longitudinal study , path analysis (statistics) , conflict resolution strategy , romance , adolescent development , social psychology , family conflict , social science , statistics , mathematics , archaeology , sociology , political science , psychoanalysis , law , history
This study longitudinally investigated transmission of conflict management styles across inter‐parental, adolescent–parent, adolescent–friend, and adolescent–partner relationships. During four waves, 799 middle‐to‐late adolescents ( M age‐t1 = 15.80; 54% boys) and their parents completed the Conflict Resolution Style Inventory. Cross‐lagged path analyses indicated transmission of adolescent conflict management styles in relationships with parents to relationships with friends and romantic partners: Positive problem solving and conflict engagement utilized by adolescents in conflicts with parents were significantly, positively related to, respectively, adolescent positive problem solving and conflict engagement in relationships with friends 1 year later and relationships with partners 2 years later. Thus, the study showed that the way adolescents manage conflicts with parents predicts how they handle conflicts later in relationships outside the family.