Perceptions of Parental Gender Roles and Conflict Styles and Their Association With Young Adults' Relational and Psychological Well-Being

Abstract

According to social cognitive theory and intergenerational transmission, young adults acquire attitudes and behaviors that are relevant to interpersonal relationships from observation of their parents, and these tendencies are assumed to be associated with young adults' own relational and psychological well-being as they form and manage close relationships. This study expanded on past research in this area by examining the extent to which young adult perceptions of parental gender roles and conflict styles were predictive of their own gender roles and conflict styles. It was expected that traditional gender role beliefs and distributive conflict styles would be deleterious to young adults' relational locus of control, which would, in turn, be predictive of their psychological distress. In contrast, integrative conflict styles were anticipated to be beneficial to relational locus of control. Data from 368 young adults supported all of these predictions. Structural equation models were suggestive of a process whereby parental gender roles and conflict styles are intergenerationally transmitted from both parents to their young adult offspring. These young adult relationship beliefs and behaviors, in turn, were predictive of both relational locus of control and psychological distress.