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Marital Conflict and Early Adolescents’ Self-Evaluation: The Role of Parenting Quality and Early Adolescents’ Appraisals

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Abstract

Cognitive appraisals and family dynamics have been identified as mediators of the relationship between marital conflict and children’s adjustment. Surprisingly little research has investigated both meditational processes in the same study. Guided by the cognitive-contextual framework and the spillover hypothesis, the present study integrated factors from both theories early adolescents’ appraisals of threat and self-blame, as well as perceived parenting quality as mediators of the link between early adolescents’ perception of marital conflict and their self-evaluations (self-esteem and scholastic competence). Analyses were based on the first two waves of an ongoing longitudinal study. Participants were 176 two-parent families, and their early adolescents (50.5% girls) whose mean age was 10.61 years at Time 1 (SD = 0.40) and 11.63 years at Time 2 (SD = 0.39). Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that parenting quality and early adolescents’ perceived threat provided indirect pathways between marital conflict and early adolescents’ self-esteem 1 year later when controlling for their initial level of self-esteem. With respect to scholastic competence, only fathers’ parenting was an indirect link. Self-blame did not play a role. Implications for understanding the mechanisms by which exposure to marital conflict predicts early adolescents’ maladjustment are discussed.

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Notes

  1. According to Arbuckle (2007) and Browne and Cudeck (1993) the fit indices of the measurement models point to a good model fit. Model for maternal parenting und self-esteem: χ2: 114.491, df = 85, p < .05, n = 176; χ2/df: 1.347; RMSEA: .045 (90% CI: .019–.064); CFI: .957; TLI: .932. Model for paternal parenting und self-esteem: χ2: 100.552, df = 85, p = .120, n = 176; χ2/df: 1.183; RMSEA: .032 (90% CI: .000–.055); CFI: .976; TLI: .962. Model for maternal parenting und scholastic competence: χ2: 78.525, df = 60, p < .05, n = 176; χ2/df: 1.309; RMSEA: .042 (90% CI: .000–.066); CFI: .964; TLI: .937. Model for paternal parenting und scholastic competence: χ2: 61.908 df = 60, p = .408, n = 176; χ2/df: 1.032; RMSEA: .013 (90% CI: .000–.049); CFI: .996; TLI: .993.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grants [SNF 100013-116500/1; SNF 100014-132278/1] awarded by the Swiss National Science Foundation to the second author. We thank the families who volunteered to participate in the study. We are also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers, and the editor Roger J. R. Levesque for helpful suggestions on an earlier version. We thank Thomas Ledermann for contributing his expertise in methodological questions.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Missionsstrasse 62a, 4055, Basel, Switzerland

    Andrea Siffert, Beate Schwarz & Melanie Stutz

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  1. Andrea Siffert
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  2. Beate Schwarz
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  3. Melanie Stutz
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Correspondence to Beate Schwarz.

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Siffert, A., Schwarz, B. & Stutz, M. Marital Conflict and Early Adolescents’ Self-Evaluation: The Role of Parenting Quality and Early Adolescents’ Appraisals. J Youth Adolescence 41, 749–763 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-011-9703-1

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