Parental Awareness as a Mediator of the Relation Between Marital Conflict and Adolescent Behavior Conduct Competence

The present paper examined relations between marital conflict, aspects parenting, and adolescent behavioral outcomes. Specifically, the present study considered whether maternal awareness or maternal behavior control, or both, mediated the relation between overt marital conflict and adolescent behavior conduct competence, as well as a number of alternative models. Four years of self-report data were collected from 133 mothers and their adolescents, beginning when the adolescents were in fourth grade. Marital conflict, maternal awareness, maternal behavior control, and adolescent behavior conduct competence were assessed at all four time points in order to apply a recent methodology for assessing longitudinal mediating patterns. The results suggested that maternal awareness, but not maternal behavior control, mediated the relation between marital conflict and adolescent behavior conduct competence. Thus, the present study identified one possible parenting process through which marital conflict may affect adolescent behavior.