Does the Quality of Parent–Child Relationships Mediate the Increased Risk for Antisocial Behavior and Substance Use Among Adolescents in Single-Mother and Single-Father Families?

Abstract

This study focuses on how specific parent–child relationship variables may function as mediators of the association between two postdivorce family structures and antisocial behavior and substance use. Five parent–child relationship variables (mother/father–child conflict, parental monitoring, and mother/father–child closeness) were tested as potential mediators of the relationship between living in a single-mother or single-father household and the outcome variables in a sample of 4,117 students with modal ages of 11 to 15 years. The applied multimediating path approach proved to be a useful method for identification of the relative importance of the included mediators. As hypothesized, there was a clear tendency for mother–child conflict and parental monitoring to be the most potent mediators between residing in a divorced single-mother household and the adolescents' antisocial behavior and substance use. In the single-father household, on the other hand, only parental monitoring was a clear mediator.

KEYWORDS:

• divorce
• adolescence
• antisocial behavior
• substance use
• single mother
• single father
• parent–child relationship
• mediating effect

The research reported was conducted within the Research Unit of the Olweus Group Against Bullying at the HEMIL-center, University of Bergen, Norway. The research was supported by grants from the Norwegian Foundation for Health and Rehabilitation/Council for Mental Health to Dan Olweus and Kyrre Breivik and from the Ministry of Children and Equality to Dan Olweus, which are gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are also due for grants in earlier phases of the project from the National Association for Public Health.