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Recognizing the significance of interacting family subsystems, the present study addresses how interparental conflict is linked to adolescent emotional security as a function of parental gender. A total of 272 families with a child at 12.60 years of age (133 boys, 139 girls) were invited to participate each year for three consecutive years. A multi-informant method was used, along with trivariate models to test the associations among mothers, fathers, and their adolescent children's behaviors. The findings from separate models of destructive and constructive interparental conflict revealed intricate linkages among family members. In the model of destructive interparental conflict, mothers and fathers predicted each other's conflict behaviors over time. Moreover, adolescents' exposure to negativity expressed by either parent dampened their emotional security. Consistent with child effects models, adolescent emotional insecurity predicted fathers' destructive conflict behaviors. As for the model of constructive interparental conflict, fathers predicted mothers' conflict behaviors over time. Adolescents' exposure to fathers' constructive conflict behaviors also enhanced their sense of emotional security. Consistent with child effects models, adolescent emotional security predicted mothers' and fathers' constructive conflict behaviors. These findings extended the family and the adolescent literature by indicating that family processes are multiidirectional, involving multiple dyads in the study of parents' and adolescents' functioning. Contributions of these findings to the understanding of interparental conflict and emotional security in adolescence are discussed.

Despite calls for process-oriented models for child maladjustment due to heightened marital conflict in the context of parental depressive symptoms, few longitudinal tests of the mechanisms underlying these relations have been conducted. Addressing this gap, the present study examined multiple factors longitudinally that link parental depressive symptoms to adolescent adjustment problems, building on a conceptual model informed by emotional security theory (EST). Participants were from 320 families (158 boys, 162 girls), including mothers and fathers, who took part when their children were in kindergarten (T1), second (T2), seventh (T3), eighth (T4) and ninth (T5) grades. Parental depressive symptoms (T1) were related to changes in adolescents' externalizing and internalizing symptoms (T5), as mediated by parents' negative emotional expressiveness (T2), marital conflict (T3), and emotional insecurity (T4). Evidence was thus advanced for emotional insecurity as an explanatory process in the context of parental depressive symptoms.

The present study tested the mediating role of maladaptive emotion regulation and trust in parents between parent–child conflict and emerging adults' depressive symptoms. A total of 196 Chinese emerging adults at 18–25 years of age (M = 20.02; SD = 2.67; 43.88% women) completed an online self-reported questionnaire on parent–child conflict, trust in parents, emotion regulation, and depressive symptoms. Path analyses were conducted to analyze the cross-sectional data. Findings suggested that parent–child conflict was associated with greater maladaptive emotion regulation and depressive symptoms. Mother–child conflict was associated with emerging adults' lower trust in mothers. Also, trust in fathers was associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Regardless of the parents' gender, maladaptive emotion regulation and trust did not mediate the relation between parent–child conflict and depressive symptoms. Despite the null findings of the mediation processes, the study advanced our knowledge about the role of family processes in emerging adults' depressive symptoms, particularly in the Chinese context. The findings informed practitioners and researchers aiming to foster positive family functioning and reduce depressive symptoms among emerging adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study examined the transactional relations between mothers' and fathers' destructive interparental conflict tactics and mindful parenting practices. Background: According to family systems theory and spillover hypothesis, interparental conflict sets the stage for parents' future levels of conflict as well as parenting difficulties. However, research on the link between conflict and mindful parenting practices remains scarce. The present study aims to investigate the longitudinal relations between mothers' and fathers' interparental conflict tactics and mindful parenting practices. Method: Participants were 386 families involving mothers and fathers of adolescent children at 12–17 years old. Mothers and fathers completed questionnaire reports of destructive interparental conflict and mindful parenting at two time points spanning 12 months apart. A structural equation model was conducted to examine the relations between conflict tactics and mindful parenting practices. Results: Findings indicated that mothers' and fathers' destructive conflict predicted their own and their spouses' subsequent destructive conflict, as well as mindful parenting practices. Mothers' and fathers' mindful parenting predicted their own mindful parenting longitudinally, but did not predict the other variables. Conclusion: Supporting the spillover hypothesis, this study revealed the longitudinal effect of interparental conflict on mindful parenting, regardless of parent gender. Findings suggested dyadic effects between mothers and fathers, in that destructive conflict tactics were associated with future conflict tactics and mindful parenting practices employed by themselves and their spouses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grounded in emotional security theory and a dualistic model of harmony, the present study tested a moderated mediation model of disintegration avoidance, interparental conflict, and emotional security associated with child adjustment. A total of 70 Chinese parents completed a set of questionnaires on parents' disintegration avoidance (i.e., a dimension of harmony), constructive interparental conflict, and children's emotional security, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems (32 girls and 38 boys; Mage = 4.83 years old; SDage = 1.90). Multi-group path analysis was conducted to examine the mediating role of children's emotional security between constructive interparental conflict and child adjustment between parents with high vs. low disintegration avoidance. Significant pathways emerged to suggest emotional security as a mediator when parents reported a high level of disintegration avoidance. Supplementary analysis with disintegration avoidance as a continuous moderator suggested that disintegration avoidance and constructive conflict interactively predicted emotional security. Post-hoc simple slopes analysis further revealed that the relation between constructive interparental conflict and emotional security had a positive trend when disintegration avoidance was high. The findings enhanced our knowledge on the mediating role of emotional security in the context of Chinese culture. Evidence informs translational research in promoting constructive interparental conflict and emotional security as assets of child adjustment, particularly in families experiencing a high level of disintegration avoidance. Highlights: Emotional security mediated between constructive conflict and child adjustment when disintegration avoidance was high. Disintegration avoidance moderated the mediating role of emotional security. Mediation existed when parents' disintegration avoidance was high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]