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Interparental Conflict and Risk Behaviors Among Mexican American Adolescents: A Cognitive-Emotional Model

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Abstract

This study used a cognitive-emotional model to examine the relations between multiple dimensions of interparental conflict and health risk behaviors among young adolescents. Participants were 151 Mexican American adolescents and their parents. At initial individual interviews, parents reported on conflict with their spouses, and adolescents reported on their parents' conflict, their appraisals of the conflict, their emotional distress, and their acculturation level. At 6-month follow-ups, adolescents reported on their risk behaviors, including substance use and sexual activity. In general, adolescents' acculturation level was not related to their risk behaviors. More frequent conflict, more conflict about the adolescent, more adolescent involvement in the conflict, and poor conflict resolution were related to greater emotional distress. More conflict about the adolescent, mothers being more demanding/dominating during conflict, and more adolescent involvement in the conflict were related to greater risk behaviors. Adolescents' cognitions mediated the link between two dimensions of parental conflict, frequency and resolution, and emotional distress. Adolescents' emotional distress mediated the association between adolescent involvement in parental conflict and adolescents' risk behaviors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California

    Jeanne M. Tschann

  2. Counseling Psychology Department, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California

    Elena Flores

  3. Department of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California

    Barbara VanOss Marin

  4. Kaiser Permanente, Redwood City, California

    E. Marco Baisch

  5. Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco, California

    Charles J. Wibbelsman

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  1. Jeanne M. Tschann
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  2. Elena Flores
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  3. Barbara VanOss Marin
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  4. Lauri A. Pasch
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  5. E. Marco Baisch
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  6. Charles J. Wibbelsman
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Tschann, J.M., Flores, E., Marin, B.V. et al. Interparental Conflict and Risk Behaviors Among Mexican American Adolescents: A Cognitive-Emotional Model. J Abnorm Child Psychol 30, 373–385 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015718008205

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