Interparental Conflict, Emotional Insecurity, and Parent–Adolescent Communication

Abstract

Destructive conflict within the marital relationship has been shown to negatively impact the family system. Exposure to destructive interparental conflict may be particularly detrimental to adolescent development. Destructive interparental conflict is associated with decreased quality of parent–adolescent communication. One potential explanatory mechanism for this relationship is adolescents’ emotional insecurity in the interparental relationship. Exposure to destructive interparental conflict may decrease adolescents’ sense of emotional security. Therefore, this study examined whether emotional insecurity security mediated the relationship between destructive interparental conflict and parent–adolescent communication, based on a longitudinal study on family communication ( N = 225). Path analysis revealed that the relationship between destructive interparental conflict and father–adolescent communication, as well as mother–adolescent communication, was mediated by emotional insecurity. The results provide insight into the consequences that destructive interparental conflict may have for aspects of the parent–adolescent relationship, as well as practical implications for the development of future intervention programs.