Socialization of adolescent emotion regulation through interparental conflict: Adolescent versus parent report

Objective: Guided by the emotional security theory and tripartite model of children's emotion regulation (e.g., Davies & Cummings, 1994; Morris et al., 2007), this study examined the indirect influence of both adolescent and parent reported interparental conflict on the concurrent link between parent and adolescent emotion regulation. Background: There is strong empirical evidence of a direct link between parent and offspring emotion regulation. However, very little is known about how interparental conflict might serve as a mechanism linking parent and adolescent emotion regulation. Method: The sample consisted of 70 parents and their adolescent children (M_age = 14.59, SD = 1.44). Both parents and adolescents self-reported on levels of interparental conflict and their own emotion regulation difficulties through Qualtrics software. Results: Findings from a structural equation model indicated that parental emotion dysregulation was associated with higher levels of self- and adolescent-reported interparental conflict. However, only adolescent-reported interparental conflict was associated with adolescent emotion dysregulation, which further emerged as a significant indirect effect. Post hoc analyses indicated that conflict frequency may drive the parent–child emotion regulation link. Conclusion: These results highlight interparental conflict as a potential mechanism in the parent–child emotion regulation link and also emphasize the importance of considering children's reports of interparental conflict. Implications: Interparental conflict might be an important target for intervention efforts when trying to implement healthy emotion regulation development in adolescence.