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The Association between Interparental Conflict and Youth Anxiety: A Three-level Meta-analysis

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Abstract

Anxiety in youth has been found to be a risk factor for the development of psychological problems and psychiatric symptoms in adulthood. Interparental conflict is considered an important factor in the emergence of symptoms of youth anxiety because conflicts between parents negatively affect parent–child and sibling relationships. Whereas some meta-analyses have investigated the association between interparental conflict and youth anxiety, the exact roles of certain moderators in this association are still not fully clear. Based on the PRISMA method, the present study used a three-level meta-analysis to obtain reliable estimates of effect sizes and examined a range of moderators (sample, publication, study design and outcome, and assessment characteristics). After a systematic search for articles published before September 2020, the present study identified 38 studies, with 12,380 young people and 222 effect sizes. The analysis revealed a significant positive association between interparental conflict and youth anxiety. Moreover, the present study found a significant moderating effect of interparental conflict variable. More specifically, youth anxiety was more strongly associated with parents’ use of overt conflict style than with their use of cooperative conflict style. Study design was also found to be a significant moderator of the association between interparental conflict and youth anxiety. This association was smaller in longitudinal than in cross-sectional studies. Finally, the present results demonstrated that informant of interparental conflict was a significant moderator. A stronger correlation between these two variables was found when interparental conflict was reported by children than by parents. The results support the growing consensus that interparental conflict should be addressed when treating youth anxiety.

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Notes

  1. Given that one goal of the present study was to explore cultural differences between China (studies written in Chinese or English) and the West (studies written in English mainly), studies included in the present meta-analysis were limited to those in Chinese and English.

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Authors’ Contributions

G.R. and X.N. contributed equally to this work; G.R. and X.N. conceived of the study, conducted the systematic search, coded and analyzed the data, and drafted and revised the article; Q.Z., S.L., and J.L. participated in the design of the study and helped to code and analyze the data; X.C. and J.W. contributed to the revision. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31900760).

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Data are made openly available and can be found on https://github.com/Niuxiang123300/A-three-level-meta-analysis/blob/main/Data.xlsx.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Guangming Ran, Xiang Niu

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Institute of Education, China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637002, China

    Guangming Ran, Xiang Niu, Juncai Liu & Jihui Wu

  2. College of Preschool and Primary Education, China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637002, China

    Qi Zhang

  3. Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Song Li & Xu Chen

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Ran, G., Niu, X., Zhang, Q. et al. The Association between Interparental Conflict and Youth Anxiety: A Three-level Meta-analysis. J Youth Adolescence 50, 599–612 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01388-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01388-7

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