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

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Authors
Gong, Xiaopeng
Advisor
Paulson, Sharon E.
Issue Date
2013-07-20
Keyword
Degree
Thesis (Ph. D.)
Department
Department of Educational Psychology
Other Identifiers
Abstract

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.