A process model of adolescents' triangulation into parents' marital conflict: The role of emotional reactivity.

Abstract

This study examined adolescents' emotional reactivity to parents' marital conflict as a mediator of the association between triangulation and adolescents' internalizing problems in a sample of 416 two-parent families. Four waves of annual, multiple-informant data were analyzed (youth aged 11 – 15). Using structural equation modeling, triangulation was associated with increases in adolescents' internalizing problems, controlling for marital hostility and adolescent externalizing problems. There also was an indirect pathway from triangulation to internalizing problems across time through youths' emotional reactivity. Moderating analyses indicated that the second half of the pathway, the association between emotional reactivity and increased internalizing problems, characterized youth with lower levels of hopefulness and attachment to parents. The findings help detail why triangulation is a risk factor for adolescents' development and which youth will profit most from interventions focused on emotional regulation.

Family boundary structures and child adjustment: The indirect role of emotional reactivity.

“…How children cope with disturbances in the larger family system is not well studied, though recent research is suggestive of the importance of children's affective reactions. In a three year longitudinal study, Buehler and Welsh (2009) found family subsystem imbalance (in this study operationalized as parental triangulation of the child) to be related to youths' internalizing symptoms, and support for an indirect pathway through youths' emotional reactivity was found. Using multiple group analysis, the indirect pathway was found to be equally strong for girls and boys.…”

Adaptação portuguesa do questionário de coparentalidade: análise fatorial confirmatória e estudos de validade e fiabilidade

“…Contudo, estes dados são consistentes com os resultados de estudos anteriores que também observaram correlações elevadas entre as dimensões do CQ (e.g., Barzel & Reid, 2011;Kolak & Volling, 2007;Pedro, Ribeiro, & Shelton, 2012) e que, no entanto, optaram por avaliar as dimensões em separado por estas representarem construtos teóricos distintos. De facto, vários autores defendem a multidimensionalidade do construto de coparentalidade (e.g., Feinberg, 2003;Margolin et al, 2001), e estudos recentes comprovam o impacto distinto da triangulação e do confl ito ao nível do bem-estar e de comportamentos de externalização e internalização em crianças e adolescentes (Baril et al, 2007;Buehler & Welsh, 2009;Caldera & Lindsey, 2006). Deste modo, o presente estudo reforça assim a ideia de que o constructo de coparentalidade tem uma natureza multidimensional, devendo por isso ser avaliado ao nível dos seus diferentes componentes, embora considerando a correlação entre os mesmos.…”

Discrepancies in adolescents' versus parents' reports of coparenting: A cluster analytic approach

“…Accordingly, we expected to find higher levels of adolescent maladjustment in "Negative-Discrepant-Families" than in "Positive-Discrepant-Families" and "Congruent-PositiveFamilies. " Furthermore, previous studies detected coparenting as a process of linking problems within the parental subsystem to child adjustment (Baril, Crouter, & McHale, 2007, Buehler & Welsh, 2009). Hence, we also expected higher levels of adolescent maladjustment in "Congruent-Negative-Families" than in "Congruent-Positive-Families" and "Positive-DiscrepantFamilies.…”