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Parent‐early adolescent relationship quality and problem behavior in Hungary, the Netherlands, India, and Iceland
Author(s) -
Hillekens Jessie,
Buist Kirsten L.,
Horváth Lili O.,
Koper Natasha,
Ólafsdóttir Jóna,
Karkdijk Esther,
Balázs Judit
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/sjop.12667
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , association (psychology) , psychological intervention , clinical psychology , psychiatry , psychotherapist
Higher parent‐child relationship quality has been associated with less internalizing and externalizing problem behavior. However, it remained less clear whether these associations are universal or depend on the country under investigation. Furthermore, fathers are still understudied, even though there is increasing evidence of their important role in early adolescent development. Our study compared the association of mother‐child as well as father‐child relationship quality with early adolescents’ problem behavior in four culturally different countries, namely Hungary ( N = 293; M age = 11.22; 53% boys), the Netherlands ( N = 242; M age = 11.20; 48% boys), India ( N = 230; M age = 10.68; 61% boys), and Iceland ( N = 261; M age = 10.90; 53% boys). Early adolescents filled out questionnaires in their classroom, assessing warmth and conflict with fathers and mothers and internalizing and externalizing problem behavior. Stepwise multi‐group path analysis demonstrated no cross‐cultural differences in associations between quality of the parent‐child relationship and problem behavior. We did not find any effects of maternal or paternal warmth. However, across samples conflict with mothers was associated with more internalizing and externalizing problem behavior, and conflict with fathers was associated with more externalizing problem behavior. Our findings highlight the need to target conflict with both fathers and mothers in interventions across different countries, especially when addressing externalizing problem behavior.