Interparental Conflict in Stepfather Families and Emerging Adults’ Mental Health and Aggression

ABSTRACT

Overt and covert conflict across two parental dyads (biological mother and biological father, biological mother and stepfather) in the same family were examined in relation to emerging adults’ mental health (i.e., perceived stress, depressive symptoms, anxiety) and aggression (i.e., relational aggression, verbal hostility). In this study, the results from dominance analyses and relative weight analyses revealed the most important interparental conflict variable related to males’ mental health and aggression was conflict between biological mothers and stepfathers (particularly covert). For females, conflict between biological parents (especially covert) was most important to mental health, while conflict between mothers and stepfathers was more strongly related to females’ aggression (particularly overt for verbal hostility and covert for relational aggression).

KEYWORDS:

• Aggression
• biological mother/father
• depression
• emerging adults
• interparental conflict
• relative importance
• stepfather
• stress

Acknowledgments

Bakhtiari, F. (PI). Interparental conflict in stepfamilies and its impact on emerging adults’ well-being. Thesis Research Award. Office of Research and Graduate Studies, California State University, Northridge. Funded for $1,000 in Spring 2015.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Bakhtiari, F. (PI). Interparental conflict in stepfamilies and its impact on emerging adults’ well-being. Thesis Research Award. Office of Research and Graduate Studies, California State University, Northridge. Funded for $1,000 in Spring 2015.