This study explored young adult children's perceptions of supportive and antagonistic coparental communication as a factor that mediates the impact of witnessing interparental conflict (i.e., demand-withdraw patterns and symbolic aggression) on young adult children's mental well-being. Participants included 493 young adults who completed questionnaires concerning their parents' conflict, coparental communication, and personal reports of global self-esteem, perceived stress, and mental health symptoms. Bivariate correlations largely supported the hypothesized associations between witnessing interparental conflict, perceptions of supportive and antagonistic coparental communication, and young adults' mental well-being. Given significant differences in the constructs of interest between children from first-marriage and divorced families, however, multivariate tests were conducted separately for each group and the results were interpreted in light of the differences between family types. For young adults in first-marriage families, the results revealed that coparental communication mediates the adverse effects of witnessing parents' demand-withdraw patterns and symbolic aggression on their global self-esteem and perceived stress. Less support emerged for mental health symptoms, though supportive coparental communication mediated the negative effect of witnessing fathers' aggression on young adults' mental health.
For young adults in divorced families, the results provided much less evidence to suggest that coparental communication mediates the effects of witnessing interparental conflict on young adults' mental well-being. One exception did emerge for global self-esteem, as antagonistic coparental communication mediated the negative effects of witnessing demand-withdraw patterns and fathers' symbolic aggression. Among the more important implications of this study is the finding that perceptions of supportive and antagonistic coparental communication may operate as risk mechanisms in first-marriage families, heightening the negative effects of witnessing interparental conflict on young adult children's mental well-being.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TCU/oai:etd.tcu.edu:etd-03232011-134521 |
| Date | 23 March 2011 |
| Creators | Shimkowski, Jenna |
| Contributors | Paul Schrodt |
| Publisher | Texas Christian University |
| Source Sets | Texas Christian University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf, application/msword |
| Source | http://etd.tcu.edu/etdfiles/available/etd-03232011-134521/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to TCU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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