Suchergebnisse

AbstractFamilies manage daily conflict through communication and healthy family communication is critical to promoting better family relationships and youth adjustment. Community families without high‐risk factors, such as domestic dispute or clinical problems, are no less affected by the ramifications of poor communication and conflict management. However, there is limited translational research on community families analyzing the changes in parent–adolescent communication quality. This study aimed to test whether a brief 4‐week family conflict intervention improved openness and problems in mother–adolescent (MA) and father–adolescent (DA) communication and whether mothers, fathers, and adolescents experienced the intervention effects differently. A total of 225 community families with adolescents were randomly assigned to either a parent–adolescent treatment condition (PA: n = 75), parent‐only treatment condition (PO: n = 75), or control condition (n = 75). Mother, father, and adolescent reports on parent–adolescent communication were analyzed from pretest through a 3‐year follow‐up assessment, over five waves. ANCOVA results indicated significant intervention effects at posttest for mother‐reported openness in MA communication, youth‐reported openness in DA communication, and father‐reported problems in DA communication, for PA condition. No significant intervention effects were found for PO condition. Exploratory trajectory analysis revealed the necessity of testing both linear and nonlinear models to be able to best illustrate the 3‐year change trajectories of parent–adolescent communication quality. Resulting trajectories revealed interesting variations in longitudinal changes across three intervention conditions. The findings highlight the importance of involving fathers and adolescents in family intervention programs and the necessity of multi‐informant assessment to better clarify the interplay among different family members behind the intervention effects.

The Post Conflict Explanations (PCE) scale is a compilation of behaviors commonly seen in parent‐child postconflict communications. Following exploratory factor analysis, the PCE emerged as a four‐dimension scale with adequate subscale internal consistency and intercorrelations: Dismissive (α = 0.86), Emotion Dysregulation (α = 0.85), Constructive (α = 0.97), and Blaming (α = 0.77). The PCE and its subscales were further validated through moderate‐to‐strong associations with established scales of family conflict, emotional security, and adjustment outcomes. The identification of these postconflict explanations represents a step forward in distinguishing constructive and destructive conflict behaviors.

The present study examines adolescents' emotional insecurity and problem behaviors at school. Adolescents (n = 280; 136 boys, 144 girls, Median age = 13) and their parents reported on adolescents' emotional security and adjustment problems. Adolescents' teachers (n = 240) also reported on adolescents' school adjustment. Results support that emotional insecurity is related to adjustment problems in the home and at school. Emotional insecurity in the family system was a better predictor of adolescents' adjustment problems than emotional insecurity in the interparental relationship. Findings have implications for teachers, parents, school administrators and policy‐makers, as adolescents' problem behaviors at school can be explained by their emotional insecurity.

Destructive conflict is linked with adjustment problems over time, putting families at risk even when conflict behaviors have not reached levels of clinical concern. The Family Communication Project (FCP) is a psychoeducational program designed to improve communication in families with adolescent children. The present study examines the role of depression in program efficacy over time. Data were collected across four time points, assessing aspects of marital and family conflict, adolescent emotional security, and depressive symptoms in mothers, fathers, and adolescents. Results indicated improvements in conflict strategies for families who received the psychoeducational program (relative to controls), and point to a role of depressive symptomatology in adolescents in relation to treatment outcomes.