Conflict: The Role of Calm and Angry Parent-Child Discussion in Adolescent Adjustment

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to provide information about the following aspects of the parent-adolescent conflict: (1) Who argues with whom about what in families with early-adolescent children, and (2) what is the relationship between affect in family discussion and adolescent adjustment? Sixty-nine families with an early adolescent served as subjects. Mothers, fathers, and adolescents completed a self-report measure of disagreements about 44 specific issues. Each respondent rated the degree of negative affect on a 5-point scale ranging from "calm" to "angry" for each issue that was discussed. Adolescent adjustment measures included teacher-completed assessments of cognitive competence, social competence, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems, as well as adolescent reports of depression and their actual grade point averages. The results indicated that adjustment was related positively to the number of calm discussions and negatively related to the number of angry discussions between parents and adolescent. Adjustment was also positively associated with a balance of positive and negative discussions. The foregoing results were all stronger among boys than among girls. Alternative explanations of the results are presented.