Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-p566r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T10:40:55.631Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Cascading effects of interparental conflict in adolescence: Linking threat appraisals, self-efficacy, and adjustment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2014

Gregory M. Fosco*
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University
Mark E. Feinberg
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Greg Fosco, Human Development and Family Studies, 315 Health and Human Development East Building, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802; E-mail: gmf19@psu.edu.

Abstract

This study examined the longitudinal implications of adolescents' exposure to interparental conflict for their developmental success. In the proposed developmental cascade model, adolescents' perceptions of parental conflict as threatening is a risk factor for diminished self-efficacy, which would account for diminished adjustment. This study presents longitudinal data for 768 sixth-grade students and their families over four time points, ending in eighth grade. Analyses were conducted in three steps. First, replication of longitudinal support for threat as a mediator of the link between interparental conflict and emotional distress was found; however, findings did not support threat as a mediator of behavior problems or subjective well-being. Second, threat was found to mediate the longitudinal association between interparental conflict and self-efficacy. Third, a developmental cascade model supported a risk process in which interparental conflict was related to adolescents' threat appraisals, which undermined self-efficacy beliefs, and was then linked with emotional distress, behavior problems, and subjective well-being.

Type
Special Section Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, T. M. (1991). Manual for the Youth Self-Report and 1991 profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Antaramian, S. P., Huebner, E. S., Hills, K. J., & Valois, R. F. (2010). A dual-factor model of mental health: Toward a more comprehensive understanding of youth functioning. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 80, 462472. doi:10.1111/j.1939-0025.2010.01049.xGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, E. R., Dadds, M. R., Chipuer, H., & Dawe, S. (2009). Threat is a multidimensional construct: Exploring the role of children's threat appraisals in the relationship between interparental conflict and child adjustment. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 37, 281292. doi:10.1007/s10802-008-9275-zCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1994). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman.Google Scholar
Bandura, A., Barbaranelli, C., Caprara, G. V., & Pastorelli, C. (1996). Multifaceted impact of self-efficacy beliefs on academic functioning. Child Development, 67, 12061222.Google Scholar
Blandon, A. Y., Calkins, S. D., Grimm, K. J., Keane, S. P., & O'Brien, M. (2010). Testing a developmental cascade model of emotional and social competence and early peer acceptance. Development and Psychopathology, 22, 737748. doi:10.1017/S0954579410000428Google Scholar
Buehler, C., Anthony, C., Krishnakumar, A., Stone, G., Gerard, J., & Pemberton, S. (1997). Interparental conflict and youth problem behaviors: A meta-analysis. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 6, 233247.Google Scholar
Buehler, C., Lange, G., & Franck, K. L. (2007). Adolescents' cognitive and emotional responses to martial hostility. Child Development, 78, 775789.Google Scholar
Caprara, G. V., Barbaranelli, C., Pastorelli, C., & Cervone, D. (2004). The contribution of self-efficacy beliefs to psychosocial outcomes in adolescence: Predicting beyond global dispositional tendencies. Personality and Individual Differences, 37, 751763. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2003.11.003Google Scholar
Chappel, A. M., Suldo, S. M., & Ogg, J. A. (2012). Associations between adolescents' family stressors and life satisfaction. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 21, 19.Google Scholar
Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9, 233255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cui, M., & Conger, R. D. (2009). Parenting behavior as a mediator and moderator of the association between marital problems and adolescent maladjustment. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 18, 261284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummings, E. M., George, M. R. W., McCoy, K. P., & Davies, P. T. (2012). Interparental conflict in kindergarten and adolescent adjustment: Prospective investigation of emotional security as an explanatory mechanism. Child Development, 83, 17031715. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01807.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cummings, E. M., Schermerhorn, A. C., Davies, P. T., Goeke-Morey, M. C., & Cummings, J. S. (2006). Interparental discord and child adjustment: Prospective investigations of emotional security as an explanatory mechanism. Child Development, 77, 132152.Google Scholar
Dadds, M. R., & Powell, M. B. (1991). The relationship of interparental conflict and global marital adjustment to aggression, anxiety, and immaturity in aggressive and nonclinic children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 19, 553567. doi:10.1007/BF00925820Google Scholar
Davies, P. T., & Cummings, E. M. (1994). Marital conflict and child adjustment: An emotional security hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 116, 387411.Google Scholar
Davies, P. T., & Cummings, E. M. (1998). Exploring children's emotional security as a mediator of the link between marital relations and child adjustment. Child Development, 69, 124139.Google Scholar
Davies, P. T., Harold, G. T., Goeke-Morey, M., & Cummings, E. M. (2002). Child emotional security and interparental conflict. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 67(3, Serial No. 270).Google ScholarPubMed
Davies, P. T., Manning, L. G., & Cicchetti, D. (2013). Tracing the cascade of children's insecurity in the interparental relationship: The role of stage-salient tasks. Child Development, 84, 297312.Google Scholar
Davies, P. T., Myers, R. L., & Cummings, E. M. (1996). Responses of children and adolescents to marital conflict scenarios as a function of the emotionality of conflict endings. Merrill–Palmer Quarterly, 42, 121.Google Scholar
Davies, P. T., & Sturge-Apple, M. L. (2007). Advances in the formulation of emotional security theory: An ethologically-based perspective. Advances in Child Behavior and Development, 35, 87137.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davies, P. T., & Woitach, M. J. (2008). Children's emotional security in the interparental relationship. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 269274. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00588.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deiner, E. (1994). Assessing subjective well-being: Progress and opportunities. Social Indicators Research, 31, 103157.Google Scholar
Dishion, T. J., Nelson, S. E., & Bullock, B. M. (2004). Premature adolescent autonomy: Parent disengagement and deviant peer process in the amplification of problem behavior. Journal of Adolescence, 27, 515530.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dishion, T. J., Véronneau, M.-H., & Myers, M. W. (2010). Cascading peer dynamics underlying the progression from problem behavior to violence in early to late adolescence. Development and Psychopathology, 22, 603619. doi:10.1017/S0954579410000313CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dodge, K. A., Malone, P. S., Lansford, J. E., Miller, S., Pettit, G. S., & Bates, J. E. (2008). A dynamic cascade model of the development of substance-use onset. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 74, vii–119.Google Scholar
Donohue, B., Teichner, G., Azrin, N., Weintraub, N., Crum, T. A., Murphy, L., et al. (2003). Initial reliability and validity of the Life Satisfaction Scale for Problem Youth in a sample of drug abusing and conduct disordered youth. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 12, 453464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emery, R. E. (1982). Interparental conflict and the children of discord and divorce. Psychological Bulletin, 92, 310330. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.92.2.310Google Scholar
Erikson, E. H. (1963). Childhood and society. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Faircloth, W. B., Schermerhorn, A. C., Mitchell, P. M., Cummings, J. S., & Cummings, E. M. (2011). Testing the long-term efficacy of a prevention program for improving marital conflict in community families. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 32, 189197.Google Scholar
Fincham, F. D. (1994). Understanding the association between marital conflict and child adjustment: Overview. Journal of Family Psychology, 8, 123127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fosco, G. M., DeBoard, R. L., & Grych, J. H. (2007). Making sense of family violence: Implications of children's appraisals of interparental aggression for their short-term and long-term functioning. European Psychologist, 12, 616.Google Scholar
Fosco, G. M., & Grych, J. H. (2007). Emotional expression in the family as a context for children's appraisals of interparental conflict. Journal of Family Psychology, 21, 248258.Google Scholar
Fosco, G. M., & Grych, J. H. (2008). Emotional, cognitive, and family systems mediators of children's adjustment to interparental conflict. Journal of Family Psychology, 22, 843854.Google Scholar
Fosco, G. M., & Grych, J. H. (2010). Adolescent triangulation into parental conflicts: Longitudinal implications for appraisals and adolescent–parent relations. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 254266. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00697.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerard, J. M., Buehler, C., Franck, K., & Anderson, O. (2005). In the eyes of the beholder: Cognitive appraisals as mediators of the association between interparental conflict and youth maladjustment. Journal of Family Psychology, 19, 376384.Google Scholar
Grills, A. E., & Ollendick, T. H. (2003). Multiple informant agreement and the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for parents and children. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 42, 3040.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grych, J. H. (1998). Children's appraisals of interparental conflict: Situational and contextual influences. Journal of Family Psychology, 12, 437453.Google Scholar
Grych, J. H., & Cardoza-Fernandez, S. (2001). Understanding the impact of interparental conflict on children: The role of social cognitive processes. In Grych, J. H. & Fincham, F. D. (Eds.), Interparental conflict and child development: Theory, research, and application (pp. 157187). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Grych, J. H., & Fincham, F. D. (1990). Marital conflict and children's adjustment: A cognitive–contextual framework. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 267290.Google Scholar
Grych, J. H., & Fincham, F. D. (1993). Children's appraisals of interparental conflict: Initial investigations of the cognitive–contextual framework. Child Development, 64, 215230.Google Scholar
Grych, J. H., Fincham, F. D., Jouriles, E. N., & McDonald, R. (2000). Interparental conflict and child adjustment: Testing the mediational role of appraisals in the cognitive–contextual framework. Child Development, 71, 16481661.Google Scholar
Grych, J. H., Harold, G. T., & Miles, C. J. (2003). A prospective investigation of appraisals as mediators of the link between interparental conflict and child adjustment. Child Development, 74, 11761193.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grych, J. H., Raynor, S. R., & Fosco, G. M. (2004). Family processes that shape the impact of interparental conflict on adolescents. Development and Psychopathology, 16, 649665.Google Scholar
Grych, J. H., Seid, M., & Fincham, F. D. (1992). Assessing marital conflict from the child's perspective: The children's perceptions of interparental conflict scale. Child Development, 63, 558572.Google Scholar
Hawk, S. T., Hale, W. W., Raaijmakers, Q. A., & Meeus, W. (2008). Adolescents' perceptions of privacy invasion in reaction to parental solicitation or control. Journal of Early Adolescence, 28, 583608. doi:10.1177/0272431608317611Google Scholar
Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6, 155. doi:10.1080/10705519909540118Google Scholar
Katz, L. F., & Gottman, J. M. (1993). Patterns of marital conflict predict children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Developmental Psychology, 29, 940950. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.29.6.940CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerig, P. K. (1998). Moderators and mediators of the effects of interparental conflict on children's adjustment. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 26, 199212.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kerig, P. K. (2001). Coping with interparental conflict. In Grych, J. H. & Fincham, F. D. (Eds.), Interparental conflict and child development (pp. 213245). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kouros, C. D., Cummings, E. M., & Davies, P. T. (2010). Early trajectories of interparental conflict and externalizing problems as predictors of social competence in preadolescence. Development and Psychopathology, 22, 527537.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuperminc, G. P., Blatt, S. J., & Leadbeater, B. J. (1997). Relatedness, self-definition, and early adolescent adjustment. Cognitive Therapy & Research, 21, 301320. doi:10.1023/A:1021826500037CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lagattuta, K. H., Sayfan, L., & Bamford, C. (2012). Do you know how I feel? Parents underestimate worry and overestimate optimism compared to child self-report. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 113, 211232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laursen, B., & Collins, W. (2009). Parent–child relationships during adolescence. In Lerner, R. & Steinberg, L. (Eds.), Handbook of adolescent psychology (3rd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 342). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Lucas-Thompson, R. G., & Hostinar, C. E. (2013). Family income and appraisals of parental conflict as predictors of psychological adjustment and diurnal cortisol in emerging adulthood. Journal of Family Psychology, 27, 784794.Google Scholar
Lyubomirsky, S., & Lepper, H. S. (1999). A measure of subjective happiness: Preliminary reliability and construct validation. Social Indicators Research, 46, 137155.Google Scholar
MacKinnon, D. P., Lockwood, C. M., Hoffman, J. M., West, S. G., & Sheets, V. (2002). A comparison of methods to test the significance of a mediation and other intervening variable effects. Psychological Methods, 7, 83104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacKinnon, D. P., Lockwood, C. M., & Williams, J. (2004). Confidence limits for the indirect effect: Distribution of the product and resampling methods. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 39, 99128.Google Scholar
Masten, A. S., Roisman, G. I., Long, J. D., Burt, K. B., Obradovic, J., Roley, J. R., et al. (2005). Developmental cascades: Linking academic achievement and externalizing and internalizing symptoms over 20 years. Developmental Psychology, 41, 733746.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muris, P. (2002). Relationships between self-efficacy and symptoms of anxiety disorders and depression in a normal adolescent sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 32, 337348.Google Scholar
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2008). Mplus user's guide (6th ed.). Los Angeles: Author.Google Scholar
Pajares, F. (2006). Self-efficacy during childhood and adolescence: Implications for teachers and parents. In Pajares, F. & Urdan, T. (Eds.), Self-efficacy beliefs of adolescents (pp. 339367). Greenwich, CT: Information Age.Google Scholar
Pearlin, L. I., & Schooler, C. (1978). The structure of coping. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 19, 221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rhoades, K. A. (2008). Children's responses to interparental conflict: A meta-analysis of their associations with child adjustment. Child Development, 79, 19421956.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rossman, B. B., & Rosenberg, M. S. (1992). Family stress and functioning in children: The moderating effects of children's beliefs about their control over parental conflict. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 33, 699715.Google Scholar
Rudy, B. M., Davies, T. E. III, & Matthews, R. A. (2012). The relationship among self-efficacy, negative self-referent cognitions, and social anxiety in children: A multiple mediator model. Behavior Therapy, 43, 619628.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Selig, J. P., & Little, T. D. (2012). Autoregressive and cross-lagged panel analysis for longitudinal data. In Laursen, B., Little, T. D., & Card, N. A. (Eds.), Handbook of developmental research methods (pp. 265278). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Siffert, A., & Schwarz, B. (2011). Parental conflict resolution styles and children's adjustment: Children's appraisals and emotion regulation as mediators. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 172, 2139.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Siffert, A., Schwarz, B., & Stutz, M. (2012). Marital conflict and early adolescents' self-evaluation: The role of parenting quality and early adolescents' appraisals. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 41, 749763.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sobel, M. E. (1986). Some new results on indirect effects and their standard errors in covariance structure models. In Tuma, N. B. (Ed.), Sociological methodology (pp. 159186). San Francisco, CA: Jossey–Bass.Google Scholar
Spoth, R., Greenberg, M., Bierman, K., & Redmond, C. (2004). PROSPER community-university partnership model for public education systems: Capacity-building for evidence-based, competence-building prevention. Prevention Science, 5, 3139.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spoth, R., Guyll, M., Lillehoj, C. L., Redmond, C., & Greenberg, M. G. (2007). PROSPER study of evidence-based intervention implementation quality by community-university partnerships. Journal of Community Psychology, 35, 981999.Google Scholar
Valois, R. F., Paxton, R. J., Zullig, K. J., & Huebner, E. S. (2006). Life satisfaction and violent behaviors among middle school students. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 15, 695707.Google Scholar
Valois, R. F., Zullig, K. J., Huebner, E. S., & Drane, J. W. (2001). Relationship between life satisfaction and violent behaviours among adolescents. American Journal of Health Behavior, 25, 353366.Google Scholar
Valois, R. F., Zullig, K. J., Huebner, E. S., Kammermann, S. K., & Drane, J. W. (2002). Association between life satisfaction and sexual risk-taking behaviors among adolescents. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 11, 427440.Google Scholar
Vecchio, G. M., Gerbino, M., Pastorelli, C., Del Bove, G., & Caprara, G. V. (2007). Multi-faceted self-efficacy beliefs as predictors of life satisfaction in late adolescence. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 18071818.Google Scholar
Vieno, A., Santinello, M., Pastore, M., & Perkins, D. D. (2007). Social support, sense of community in school, and self-efficacy as resources during early adolescence: An integrative model. American Journal of Community Psychology, 39, 177190. doi:10.1023/A:1021826500037Google Scholar
Viet, C. T., & Ware, J. E. (1983). The structure of psychological distress and well-being in general populations. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51, 730742.Google Scholar
Widaman, K. F. (2006). Missing data: What to do with or without them. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 71, 4264. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5834.2006.00404Google Scholar
Zimmerman, B. J., & Cleary, T. J. (2006). Adolescents' development of personal agency: The role of self-efficacy beliefs and self-regulatory skill. In Pajares, F. & Urdan, T. (Eds.), Self-efficacy beliefs of adolescents (pp. 4569). Greenwich, CT: Information Age.Google Scholar
Zullig, K. J., Valois, R. F., Huebner, E. S., & Drane, J. W. (2005). Adolescent health-related quality of life and perceived satisfaction with life. Quality of Life Research, 14, 15731584.Google Scholar