The role of interparental conflict in adolescent siblings’ distress: A multi-informant study of military families

Quichocho, D., & Lucier-Greer, M. (2021). The role of interparental conflict in adolescent siblings’ distress: A multi-informant study of military families. Children & Youth Services Review, 120, 105708. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105708

This study examined how parental conflict was associated with adolescent distress – specifically, anxiety and adjustment – among siblings in military families (N = 117 families). Informed by the ABC-X Model of Family Stress and Coping, the researchers hypothesized adolescents’ perceptions of their parents’ conflict was a salient link between parents’ reports of conflict and adolescent distress. Participating families comprised of one active-duty parent, one civilian parent, and two adolescent siblings (11-17 years old). Parents and their adolescent children both reported on unhealthy parental conflict; adolescents also reported on their own anxiety and adjustment (i.e., well-being and self-efficacy). The civilian parents’ reports of parental conflict were associated with the siblings’ perceptions of parental conflict. In other words, the civilian parents’ reports of parental conflict (not the military parents’) tended to align with perceived parental conflict reported by the adolescents. In turn, adolescents who perceived more parental conflict reported more distress, both more anxiety and poorer adjustment.

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