Stop Yelling: Interparental Conflict and Adolescents’ Self-Representations as Mediated by Their Perceived Relationships With Parents

Carla Sofia Silva,Maria Manuela Calheiros

doi:10.1177/0192513x17741176

Abstract

Adolescents’ perceptions of their relationship with both parents were examined as mediators linking interparental conflict to their self-representations (SR). Portuguese adolescents ( N = 214; 58.4% girls), aged 10-16 years old ( M = 13.39), attending public elementary and secondary schools, filled out self-report measures. Multi-mediator path analysis models revealed that interparental conflict predicted less favorable SR in most evaluated domains. This association was mediated by adolescents’ perceptions of (a) support in the mother–adolescent relationship, related to instrumental, social, emotional, physical appearance, and intelligence SR; (b) negative interactions in the mother–adolescent relationship, related to instrumental and physical appearance SR; (c) support in the father–adolescent relationship, related to social and physical appearance SR; and (d) negative interactions in the father–adolescent relationship, related to instrumental SR. This study emphasizes the relevance of interparental conflict and adolescents’ perceptions of their relationship with both parents in their SR construction. Practical implications point to promoting constructive conflict and improving parent–adolescent relationships.

Highlights

IntroductionSelf-concept and, self-representations (SR) are social constructions that develop through experiences and interactions with close significant others, especially caregivers (Bowlby, 1969; Bretherton & Munholland, 2008; Cooley, 1902)
The correlations were in line with the theoretically expected pattern of relationships: interparental conflict showed significant negative correlations with adolescents’ perceptions of support in their relationship with both their mother and father, significant positive correlations with adolescents’ perceptions of negative interactions in their relationship with both their mother and father, and significant negative correlations with all the evaluated domains of adolescents’ SR
As part of a larger study about the processes explaining the associations between interparental conflict and adolescents’ domain-specific SR, the present paper reports an analysis of the mediating role of adolescents’ perceptions of their relationship with their mothers and with their fathers, in terms of support and negative interactions, in the association between their experiences with interparental conflict and their SR

Summary

Introduction

Self-concept and, self-representations (SR) are social constructions that develop through experiences and interactions with close significant others, especially caregivers (Bowlby, 1969; Bretherton & Munholland, 2008; Cooley, 1902). This social nature of the self was emphasized by the symbolic interactionism perspective (Cooley, 1902; Mead, 1934), in which self-representations are viewed as being constructed within social interactions with significant others and the broader social context, through linguistic exchanges (i.e., symbolic interactions). EST is consistent with attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969) holding that children’s and adolescents’ ability to resort to their parents as sources of security have important implications for their adjustment, and that the harmful effects of those relational experiences occur through pathways involving both the interparental and the parent-child subsystems

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