How Does Family Communication Relate to Adolescent Dating Violence and Externalizing Behaviors? The Role of Parent-Adolescent Risk Communication and Attitudes toward Violence in a Nicaraguan Sample

ABSTRACT

Family plays a critical role for adolescent socialization. Parents in particular can promote either adolescent prosocial or problem behaviors. The purpose of the present study is two-fold. The first is to investigate the main and interaction effects of family communication (i.e., verbal hostility and expressiveness) on adolescent risk behaviors (i.e., dating violence and externalizing behaviors). The second is to test whether family communication is indirectly associated with adolescent risk behaviors through parent-adolescent risk communication and adolescent attitudes toward violence. Nicaraguan 7^th and 8^th graders were recruited to participate in paper-pencil surveys (N = 1,651). Path analysis identified significant main effects of verbal hostility for adolescent dating violence and externalizing behaviors. Although expressiveness did not show a significant main effect, interaction effects with verbal hostility were identified for both dating violence and externalizing behaviors. When verbal hostility was low, expressiveness was negatively related to adolescent dating violence and externalizing behaviors whereas when verbal hostility was high, expressiveness was positively associated with these behaviors. Significant indirect effects were detected only via adolescent attitudes toward violence. Prevention efforts that promote positive family environments and especially that eliminate verbal hostility are suggested.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by grant number S-INLEC-16-GR-1005 from the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Bureau to Arizona State University (Jonathan Pettigrew, Principal Investigator). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the United States Department of State

Declaration of potential conflict of interest

The authors report there are no financial conflicts of interest.