The Relationship Between Interparental Conflict, Family Attachment Style, and Young Adult Emotion Regulation

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to explore the relationship between interparental conflict, family attachment style, and young adult emotion regulation. Family attachment anxiety and avoidance (i.e., mother, father, and sibling) were expected to moderate the relationship between interparental conflict and young adult emotion regulation, such that better quality of mother, father, and sibling attachment anxiety and avoidance would indicate a weaker association between interparental conflict and difficulties in emotion regulation. There were 397 individuals from Illinois State University aged 18 to 22 who participated in the online survey. Three hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to determine if the six family attachment variables were moderators for interparental conflict and young adult emotion regulation. Only sibling attachment avoidance was found to be a moderator since it was the only construct to have a significant interaction with interparental conflict. Looking at the simple slopes, a higher level of sibling attachment avoidance was found to have a weaker association between interparental conflict and difficulties in emotion regulation. The results of the current study were unexpected and should be replicated before being considered valid. Limitations and future direction were also discussed.