A Gender-Moderated Model of Family Relationships and Adolescent Adjustment

Abstract

The objective of this study was to explain why adolescent girls with conduct problems (CP) are more at risk than boys to develop emotional distress (ED) in a sample composed of Israeli-born and immigrant youth from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union (n = 305, ages 14–18). We tested a structural equation model and found a very good fit to the data for both immigrant and nonimmigrant groups. The hypothesized effects of gender, CP, and parent–child relationships on ED were significant, whereas the effect of family discord was mediated by parent–child relationships. Subsequently, we used multiple-group analyses to test the two interaction hypotheses. We found significantly higher associations between CP and family discord and between ED and negative parent–child relationships in girls compared to boys.

This study was supported by grants from the NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education, Hebrew University, and The Israeli Anti-Drug Authority. We thank Amiram Vinokur for providing statistical consultation and for his careful reading of the manuscript and helpful suggestions.

Notes

∗p < .05.

∗∗p < .01.

∗∗∗p < .001.

ns = not significant, two-tailed test.

Note: male = 1, female = 2; natives = 1, immigrants = 2. Following the transformation of raw scores, higher scores of independent and dependent variables indicate greater conflict/problems.

∗p < .05. ∗∗p < .01. ∗∗∗p < .001, two-tailed.