Family Functioning during Adolescence: The Roles of Paternal and Maternal Emotion Dysregulation and Parent–Adolescent Relationships

Abstract

Family functioning significantly impacts family processes. When children enter adolescence the need to develop and maintain a high level of family functioning becomes even more crucial. This study examined whether parents’ individual characteristics contributed to family cohesion/adaptability in families with adolescents. Moreover, the mediating roles that parent–adolescent relationships played in these associations were also examined. Participants were 169 father–mother couples in families with at least one adolescent child in Mainland China. Fathers and mothers reported on difficulties in emotion regulation, perceptions of parent–adolescent closeness and conflict, and family cohesion and adaptability. Results revealed that both paternal and maternal emotion dysregulation were indirectly related to their own and their partner’s perceptions of family cohesion through their own closeness or conflict with the adolescent child. A parent’s emotion dysregulation could be directly and indirectly related to his/her own perception of family adaptability through his/her own closeness with the adolescent, while another parent’s emotion dysregulation could be indirectly associated with his/her partner’s report of family adaptability through his/her own conflict with the adolescent. These findings suggested that family functioning during adolescence might be impacted by family factors at the individual parental and parent–adolescent dyadic levels. Additionally, this study indicated fathers and mothers might contribute to the family processes in a similar way.