The Relationship Between Perceived Marital Conflict, Attitudes Towards Parents, and Parenting Styles Experienced by Adolescents

Abstract

This study investigated the relationships among marital conflict, perceptions of parents, and parenting styles perceived by adolescents. Subjects were 172 high school and university students aged 16 to 19 years. Subjects were given a questionnaire containing The Conflict Scale, Parenting Styles Scale, and Perceptions of Parents Scale. Results indicated that total marital conflict scores correlated with negative perceptions of mothers and fathers and with authoritarian, neglectful, and permissive parenting. Marital conflict correlated positively with negative perceptions of mothers and fathers and negatively with positive perceptions of parents. Mediational analyses revealed that neglectful parenting was a partial and sometimes full mediator in the relationships between perceived marital conflict and perceptions of parents. Neglect was a full mediator in the relationship between perceived marital conflict and both positive and negative perceptions of mothers. Neglect was a partial mediator in the relationship between perceived marital conflict and positive perceptions of fathers. This suggests that marital conflict may be consuming parents’ emotional resources, leading to neglectful parenting and low support, which in turn contributes to adolescents holding negative perceptions of parents. These findings might contribute to education programs for addressing the negative effects of marital conflict and its impact on the perceptions children hold of their parents. Awareness of these influences may minimise the harmful family relationship effects of marital conflict.