The Relationship Between Psychological Functioning in a College Sample and Retrospective Reports of Parental Loyalty Conflicts and Psychological Maltreatment

ABSTRACT

Two-hundred forty participants completed questionnaires that explored parental unions, experiences of parental loyalty conflict behaviors, psychological functioning, and frequency of exposure to maltreatment. Significant relationships were found between nonintact parental union status and experiences of parental loyalty conflict, parental loyalty conflict and psychological abuse, and parental loyalty conflict and anxiety and depression symptoms. Relatively low frequencies of experiencing parental loyalty conflict can negatively affect psychological functioning. Implications for psychological, social, and legal service providers are presented.

KEYWORDS :

• adjustment
• anxiety
• college-age sample
• depression
• intact parental union
• interparental conflicts
• nonintact parental union
• parental loyalty conflicts
• psychological maltreatment

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Dr. Luke Elliot for his preliminary work in conceptualizing the research questions. The student research team members contributed to many aspects of this project and the authors deeply appreciate their unwavering dedication.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Better Options Initiative, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to “eliminate harm to Acadiana’s children due to parental conflict” (Better Options Initiative, n.d.).