Within-Family Conflict Behaviors as Predictors of Conflict in Adolescent Romantic Relations

• NCJ Number: 225639
• Journal: Journal of Adolescence Volume: 31 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2008 Pages: 671-690
• Author(s): Nancy Darling; Catherine L. Cohan; Andrew Burns; Louisa Thompson
• Date Published: December 2008
• Length: 20 pages
• Grant Number(s): R03 MH63792
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Mental Health
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined continuity in conflict behaviors from adolescents’ behavior with parents and their behavior with romantic partners, as well as from parents’ marital conflict to adolescents’ romantic relationships.

Abstract

The study found that parents’ reports of their adolescents’ use of physical aggression in the home predicted both adolescents’ and adolescents’ partners’ reports of the adolescents’ use of physical aggression in their romantic relationships. Reports of physical aggression in the home were also associated with low partner ratings of the use of rational arguments in romantic relationships. There was no evidence, however, for continuity in adolescents’ use of verbal aggression or rational arguments. The analysis suggests that adolescents who tend to be physically aggressive in one setting tend to be physically aggressive in other settings. The study also found evidence for continuity of behaviors across generations, as there was a link between partners’ observed conflict behavior in their marital relationship and adolescents’ observed conflict behavior with their romantic partner. There was only limited evidence, however, for a one-to-one correspondence between specific problem solving behaviors in the parents’ marriage and analogous behaviors in the adolescents’ relationship. The study used a sample of 58 mother-father-adolescent families and the adolescents’ romantic partners. All families were initially recruited through the identification of an adolescent in his/her junior or senior year in high school who was currently involved in a romantic relationship that had existed for at least 4 weeks. The currently married biological parents of one member of the adolescent romantic couple were then contacted and asked to participate in the study. Each adolescent couple and each adult couple was video-recorded engaging in four conversations that were interspersed with questionnaire administration. Behaviors were coded. All participants completed the Conflict in Relationship Scale in order to capture various types of conflict behavior. 1 figure, 5 tables, and 43 references