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Relations among interparental conflict, parenting practices and emotion regulation during emerging adulthood

This study examined the influence of parenting-related factors to emerging adults’
emotion regulation, especially in the context of interparental conflict. Specifically, the
purpose of the study was to examine how interparental conflict, parenting (defined as
parental psychological control, autonomy support, and behavioral control), and parentchild
relations (defined as parent-child attachment) are related to emerging adults’
emotion regulation. In addition, do parenting behaviors (psychological control, autonomy
support, and behavioral control) and parent-child attachment mediate the relations
between interparental conflict and emotion regulation? A total of 361 college students
reported their perceptions of interparental conflict, their parents’ parenting practices,
parent-child attachment, as well as their emotion regulation capabilities. The majority of
the participants were females (n = 292), and Caucasians (n = 322) with an average age of
20.23 (SD = 1.39) years. In general, the participants reported moderate interparental
conflict, relatively low psychological control and behavioral control, moderate levels of
parental autonomy support, and high parent-child attachment, along with relatively high
emotion regulation capabilities. With regression analyses, the results showed that
emerging adults who reported higher levels of resolution of interparental conflict, moderate levels of parental behavioral control, greater attachment communication, and
lower levels of alienation from parents were associated with better emotion regulation.
Path analyses were used to test the role of parenting and attachment in mediating the
relations between interparental conflict and emotion regulation. Results demonstrated that
parental behavioral control, autonomy support, and parent-child attachment partially
mediated the role of resolution of interparental conflict on emotion regulation. In
addition, parental behavioral control and autonomy support partially mediated the impact
of resolution of interparental conflict on emerging adults’ alienation from parents. In
particular, resolution of interparental conflict was the strongest predictor of emerging
adults’ emotion regulation capability, even when parenting practices and parent-child
attachment were controlled. / Department of Educational Psychology

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:123456789/197392
Date20 July 2013
CreatorsGong, Xiaopeng
ContributorsPaulson, Sharon E.
Source SetsBall State University
Detected LanguageEnglish

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