Work

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

Year: 2009

Type: article

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 2-parent families (N = 416)[corrected]. Four waves of annual, multiple-informant data were analyzed (youth ages 11-15 years). The authors used structural equation modeling and found that 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 2nd 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.

Source: Journal of Family Psychology

DOI: 10.1037/a0014976

Authors: Cheryl Buehler, Deborah P. Welsh

Institutions: University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University of Tennessee at Knoxville

Language: English

Topic: Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute of Mental Health