Interparental conflict has been shown to be associated with child psychopathology (internalizing and externalizing behaviors). Adolescents are at risk for developing internalizing and externalizing behaviors because they are aware of the implications of the interparental conflict, they can attempt to mediate the conflict, and because of age-related responsibilities, they often experience new and unfamiliar stressors. A comprehensive review of the literature revealed four mediational models with substantial empirical support that explain the relation between interparental conflict and adolescent psychopathology: the cognitive-contextual model, the triangulation model, the spillover model, and the interparental conflict-parental psychopathology model. Typically, the mediators of these models (self-blame/perceived threat; triangulation; negative parenting behaviors; parental psychopathology, respectively) have been examined individually. The aim of this study was threefold: 1) examine the specificity of adolescent psychopathology (dimension versus diagnosis), 2) test each theoretical model, and 3) develop and test an integrative model that included the mediational mechanisms from the individual models. A community sample of 152 families (mother, father, adolescent) was recruited from the contiguous United States. Considering specific psychiatric diagnoses did not improve the fit of models that included the respective adolescent dimensional internalizing or externalizing behaviors. The hypotheses of the cognitive-contextual model (mediator: perceived threat), spillover model (mediators: maternal/paternal parenting), and the interparental conflict-parental psychopathology model (mediators: maternal/paternal internalizing) were supported in this study, but mediation was not supported for the triangulation model. Considering the mediators together, adolescent perceived threat, negative parenting, maternal internalizing and paternal externalizing behaviors were key in predicting adolescent psychopathology. Overall, the findings from the integrative models suggest that externalizing behaviors (interparental conflict, negative parenting, paternal externalizing behavior) lead to both adolescent internalizing and externalizing behaviors; whereas, parental internalizing behaviors leads to internalizing behaviors only. The implications of these findings, especially from the integrative model, have clinical implications and provide guidance for future research.

The present exploratory study examines family conflict style as a correlate of commitment to the family of origin in a one-stage random cluster sample of 200 university students between the ages of 18 and 25. The hypothesis rests on the theoretical assumption that family climate factors, such as conflict, influences commitment to the family of origin. I argue that family conflict style (adaptive or maladaptive) is associated with the level of commitment to the family of origin. Surveys are utilised to collect data in the present study which includes two scales, namely the Family Conflict Style Scale (FCS) and the Family Commitment Scale (FC). The Family Commitment Scale (FC) is an adaptation of Rusbult’s (1998) Investment Model Commitment scale and the Family Conflict Scale (FCS) is a new scale that was constructed for the purpose of the present study, derived from Gottman’s (1993) definitions of couple conflict styles, in order to examine conflict styles within a family and to examine the correlations to see whether family conflict style can be associated with commitment. The Family Resilience Framework (Walsh, 2003) and the Marital Spillover Hypothesis (Gerard, Krishnakumar & Buehler, 2009) guides the present study in better understanding how the constructs marital conflict style and commitment can also be viewed as systemic variables influencing the entire family. Results revealed that all correlations between conflict styles and commitment to the family of origin were found to be significant at the -.01 level. Findings support the value in exploring family conflict style in relation to commitment to the family of origin and, for the current sample, suggest that a more adaptive conflict style positively relates to the level of commitment whereas a maladaptive conflict style negatively relates to the level of commitment to the family of origin. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lk2014 / Educational Psychology / MEd / Unrestricted