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Explaining the spillover from interparental conflict to adolescent adjustment through self-determination theory

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Abstract

Although the association between interparental conflict and adolescent adjustment is well documented, the intervening mechanisms that explain this relationship are not fully understood. Guided by the spillover hypothesis and the self-determination theory, this study examined whether the associations among interparental conflict and adolescent depressive feelings and life satisfaction were explained by maternal autonomy support and, in turn, by adolescent need frustration. Participants were 925 Turkish adolescents (Mage = 16.08 years, SD = 0.31) and their mothers (Mage = 41.43, SD = 5.16). Results from path analysis showed that interparental conflict was related to lower maternal autonomy support, and in turn to higher adolescent need frustration. Greater need frustration, in turn, predicted higher adolescent depressive feelings and lower life satisfaction six months later. These findings suggested that conflictual parental relationships may predict adolescent adjustment through poor parenting and adolescent need frustration. The findings and related directions for future research are discussed in the context of self-determination theory and its role in advancing a process-oriented understanding of the familial and individual determinants of adolescent adjustment.

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Data availability

The datasets, materials, and codes generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on request.

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Acknowledgements

Funding:

This study was supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK – 2214/A 1059B141600823). The data was drawn from a longitudinal project funded by TUBITAK (Grant number: 114K815).

Author contributions:

This study is a part of Aylin Koçak’s PhD dissertation. All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Aylin Koçak and Athanasios Mouratidis. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Aylin Koçak and reviewed and edited by Athanasios Mouratidis, Zehra Uçanok, and Patrick T. Davies. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Izmir University of Economics, Izmir, Turkey

    Aylin Koçak

  2. School of Physical Education and Sport Science, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Athanasios Mouratidis

  3. Department of Psychology, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey

    Zehra Uçanok

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA

    Patrick T. Davies

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  1. Aylin Koçak
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  3. Zehra Uçanok
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Correspondence to Aylin Koçak.

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The questionnaire and methodology for this study was approved by the Hacettepe University Ethics Commission (Approval number: 35853172/433-515).

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Koçak, A., Mouratidis, A., Uçanok, Z. et al. Explaining the spillover from interparental conflict to adolescent adjustment through self-determination theory. J Child Fam Stud 33, 1108–1119 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-023-02564-6

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