Adolescent Family Conflict as a Predictor of Relationship Quality in Emerging Adulthood

• Published date: 01 December 2020
• Author: Justin E. Heinze,Hsing‐Fang Hsieh,Sophie M. Aiyer,Anne Buu,Marc A. Zimmerman
• Date: 01 December 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12493

J E. H  H-F HUniversity of Michigan

S M. AUniversity of Queensland

A B  M A. ZUniversity of Michigan

Adolescent Family Conict as a Predictor of

Relationship Quality in Emerging Adulthood

Objective: This research examinesthe inuence

of adolescent family conict on relationship

quality in early and later emerging adulthood,

while considering the interpersonal resources

that protect youth against the intergenerational

transmission of negative relationship quality.

Background: Family conict during adoles-

cence can impede the development of skills

needed to maintain future productive interper-

sonal relationships. Positive peer and romantic

relationships in emerging adulthood may buffer

the negative ramications of earlier family

conict.

Method: A longitudinal design was used to fol-

low a sample of 850 at-risk adolescents (50%

female, 50% male) who were predominantly

(80%) African American. Binary logistic and

ordinary least-squares regressions were run to

test hypotheses.

Results: Adolescents who reported higher levels

of family conict in adolescence were less likely

to report closeness or support from both their

parents and spouses or partners during both

early and late emerging adulthood. These ado-

lescents also reported higher levels of perceived

Department of Health Behavior and Health Educa-

tion, School of Public Health, University of Michigan,

1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029

(jheinze@umich.edu).

Key Words: emerging adulthood, family conict, relation-

ships, resilience.

daily stressors. Positive relationships in emerg-

ing adulthood did not affect the relationship

between family conict and later relationship

outcomes.

Conclusion: Family conict in adolescence is

associated with unhealthy relationship patterns

in emerging adulthood.

Implications: Adolescents from high-conict

homes are unlikely to learn adaptive relation-

ship strategies through natural maturation or

exposure to positive interpersonal relationships

in emerging adulthood. Direct intervention (e.g.,

conict resolution skills) in emerging adulthood

should be explored.

High levels of family conict during adoles-

cence can impede the development of skills

needed to maintain future productive interper-

sonal relationships (Andrews et al., 2000; Story

et al., 2004). Family conict, including both

chronic interparental conict and parent–child

conict, may contribute to children’s behavioral

modeling, thus contributing to the socialization

processes by which family conict tactics lead to

the development of children’sown conict styles

in their relationships (Kinsfogel & Grych, 2004;

Miga et al., 2012; Pendry et al., 2013).

Children often develop behavioral patterns in

various relationship contexts based on observ-

ing interactions between parents (Buehler

et al., 1994). Kinsfogel and Grych (2004), for

example, found that boys exposed to aggressive

996Family Relations 69 (December 2020): 996–1011

DOI:10.1111/fare.12493

Adolescent Family Conict997

interparental conict are more likely to view

aggression as justiable in a romantic rela-

tionship than boys not exposed to aggressive

interparental conict. Moretti et al. (2006) also

found that adolescents were more likely to be

aggressive toward their own romantic part-

ners if they had observed aggression by their

mother toward her partner than if they had not.

In addition to exhibiting aggressive behaviors

themselves, young adults who were exposed to

high levels of aggression in the family during

adolescence also were more likely to have a

spouse or partner who was more aggressive (Cui

et al., 2010).

Furthermore, parent–child relationships

during adolescence have been linked to the

style and quality of children’s other interper-

sonal relationships (Stith et al., 2000), which is

likely explained by parents’ aggression toward

their children (Reese-Weber & Kahn, 2005).

Mother–adolescent conict resolution styles,

for example, are directly linked to both sib-

ling and romantic-partner conict resolution

styles among adolescents (Reese-Weber &

Kahn, 2005). These associations were observed

in predominantly White samples, and it is

unclear whether similar patterns exist in

non-White populations. Researchers have found

that families can be protective for non-White

adolescents even when some risks originate

within the family (Graham et al., 2017); thus,

it is important to examine whether similar

associations between family conict and later

relationships emerge in non-White populations.

Adolescents’ relationship quality and styles

may be affected by family of origin through both

interparental conict and parent–child conict,

and in any case, these conicts or aggressions

likely co-occur in families (Lindsey et al., 2009,

Slep & O’Leary, 2005). Researchers haveshown

that negativity and overt conict from marital

aggression may spill over into the parent–child

relationship, especially through harsh discipline

(e.g., yelling, threatening, spanking, hitting, and

shoving) and less parental support (see Krish-

nakumar & Buehler, 2000). Children’s reactions

to disturbed parenting practices due to inter-

parental aggressions may foster further marital

discord and family conict (Busby et al., 2008;

Krishnakumar & Buehler, 2000). Such phenom-

ena in family systems often create a family envi-

ronment that is unfavorable for positive youth

adjustment (Fosco & Grych, 2008), and in turn

may inuence youth’s later close relationships

both in and outside of their immediate family.

Yet these studies are limited by short follow-up

periods or retrospective reporting. Prospective

data documenting how family conict exposure

during adolescence is associated with nonfam-

ily relationships is needed to understand the

long-term ramications of family conict.

Social learning theory provides a potential

explanation for the intergenerational trans-

mission of relational functioning. Applying

key tenets of social learning theory sug-

gests that adolescents learn patterns of social

interaction through parental modeling, includ-

ing both hostility and emotion regulation

strategies in interpersonal relationships (Kim

et al., 2009). The capacities to regulate emotion

and emotion-related behaviors are key aspects of

adaptive social functioning, and the lack of such

emotional regulation strategies may compro-

mise the individual’s ability to properly engage

in social interactions and to foster close relation-

ships (Cicchetti et al., 2009). Yet youth faced

with conictual family environments may bene-

t from other models of relationships given that

they engage with friends and signicant others

with greater frequency during the transition to

adulthood than in adolescence. Few researchers,

however, have studied pathways (adaptive and

maladaptive) between early family conict and

future relationships (Masten & Monn, 2015).

We address this need by examining individual

resilience to adolescent family conict over

time. In particular, we examine whether positive

relationships during a developmental period of

exploration can promote individual resilience

against a history of negative family conict.

Resiliency Theory

Resiliency theory suggests that interpersonal

resources available to young adults may reduce

the intergenerational transmission of negative

relationship quality as affected adolescents

begin to form adult relationships. A resiliency

perspective emphasizes a framework that

directs attention to successful coping and

adjustment despite risk exposure (Fergus &

Zimmerman, 2005; Masten & Monn 2015).

Resiliency focuses on positive individual and

contextual factors that interfere with or dis-

rupt developmental trajectories from risk to

problem behaviors, mental distress, and poor

health outcomes. These positive inuences are

called promotive factors because they operate