Longitudinal transmission of conflict resolution styles from marital relationships to adolescentpare

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Longitudinal transmission of conflict resolution
styles from marital relationships to
adolescent-parent relationships

• Muriel D. Van Doorn, Susan J. T. Branje,
• and Wim H. J. Meeus
• Utrecht University, Research Centre Adolescent
  Development
• The Netherlands

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• We all know that dog owners are going to look
  like their dogs over time

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• We also know that children are copycats

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Take home message

• When it comes to conflict resolution styles,
• parents influence their children!

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Outline presentation

• Introduction
• Previous research
• Our research question
• Method
• Results
• Conclusion
• Discussion

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Introduction

• Marital relationships and parent-child
  relationships are linked
• Importance of marital conflict
• Its not whether but how parents fight that
  matters
• Our research question
• whether the way adolescents resolve conflicts
  with their parents can be explained by the way
  parents resolve conflicts with each other

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IntroductionTheoretical perspectives

• Social learning theory modeling
• Attachment theory internal working model
• Family systems theory mutual influences
• - hierarchical organization
• - bidirectionality

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Previous research

• Relation found between marital conflict
  resolution styles and the same conflict
  resolution styles in parent-adolescent
  relationships,
• BUT
• Cross-sectional
• Reporter bias
• Unable to explain why relation exists

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Previous research Unable to separate two effects
Mother ? Father Father ? Mother
?Marital relationship
Adolescent ? Parent Parent ? Adolescent
? parent-adolescent relationship
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Previous research Unable to separate two effects
Mother ? Father Father ? Mother
?Marital relationship
Adolescent ? Parent Parent ? Adolescent
? parent-adolescent relationship
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Research question

• Can the way adolescents resolve conflicts with
  their parents be explained by the way parents
  resolve conflicts with each other
• ? Thus, does transmission from parents to
  adolescents occur?

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Method

• Family sample CONAMORE
• 282 families (138 boys, 144 girls and both
  parents)
• Mean age adolescents 13.2 (Time 1)
• 99.3 were Dutch
• 98.6 lived with both parents
• Different levels of education 50 preparing for
  university, 35 preparing for higher education
  and 15 preparing for blue-collar work.

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Method

• Conflict resolution styles (Conflict Resolution
  Style Inventory, CRSI, Kurdek, 1994)
• Positive problem solving
• Conflict engagement
• Withdrawal

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Results

• Path analysis with cross lagged effects
• for each conflict resolution style separately
• 2 waves two years in between
• The model

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resolution style
Father ? mother
Mother ? father
Father ? mother
Mother ? father






with fathers














1
1
1
1










Marital conflict resolution T 1
Marital conflict resolution T 2














Adolescent-parent conflict resolution T 2
Adolescent-parent conflict resolution T 1





adolescent
-







1
1
1
1






Adolescent ? father
Adolescent ? father
Adolescent ? mother
Adolescent ? mother


















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Results positive problem solving
                                     
Marital positive problem solving Time 1
Marital positive problem solving Time 2
.96
-.05
.25
.24
Adolescent-parent positive problem solving Time
2
Adolescent-parent positive problem solving Time
1
.53
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Results conflict engagement
Marital conflict engagement Time 1
Marital conflict engagement Time 2
.95
-.07
.15
.17
Adolescent-parent conflict engagement Time 1
Adolescent-parent conflict engagement Time 2
.61
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Results withdrawal
Marital withdrawal Time 2
Marital withdrawal Time 1
.81
.00
.28
.09
Adolescent-parent withdrawal Time 1
Adolescent-parent withdrawal Time 2
.64
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Conclusion

• Transmission from parents to adolescents occurs
  for positive problem solving and conflict
  engagement

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Conclusion

• Strengths
• Longitudinally (After controlling for concurrent
  relations)
• Independent reports (Adolescent and parent)
• Focus on adolescents conflict resolution

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Conclusion

• Limitations
• Self-reports only
• Generalizable to other populations
• Generalizable to other family subsystems

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Discussion

• No sign. longitudinal results with regard to
  withdrawal
• Possible explanation conflicts more covert/ less
  visible
• Explanation
• Family systems theory

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Thank you!