Adams, Ryan E.

Conflict during adolescence has shown to have the potential for both beneficent consequences and adverse consequences. The present study addresses this paradox and attempts to understand it by examining relationship qualities as potential moderating influences. To examine these moderated associations between conflict rates and outcome measures in mother-child, father-child, and friend relationships, 469 students completed the Interpersonal Conflict Questionnaire, Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale II, Intimate Friendship Scale, Network of Relationships Inventory, and Youth Self-Report. Regression analyses found that the level of negativity in the relationship moderated the associations between conflict rate and outcome measures such as grade point average, withdrawn behaviors, and delinquent behaviors.

The current study examined changes in mother-child and father-child relationships of 210 participants in a 3-year longitudinal study during the 6th through the 8th grade. In each relationship, latent growth curve models found that negativity had a gradual increase over the course of early adolescence, while the change in positivity during this period depended on the initial levels of positivity during the 6th grade. For those high in positivity during the 6th grade, positivity remained stable from 6th to 8th grade, while for those low in positivity during the 6th grade, positivity decreased substantially during this period. In addition, an examination of the links between the relationship features and adjustment measures, such as internalizing and externalizing problems, found that models with initial rates of the relationships predicting changes in adjustment were ideal in comparison to models with both initial rates of and changes in relationships linked to changes in adjustment.