Parental conflict and adolescents' socially adverse emotions: the mediating role of family functioning.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the process of how parental conflict and family functioning influence adolescents' socially adverse emotions (shyness and loneliness).

METHODS

Stratified cluster sampling was used to conduct a questionnaire survey among 1,100 junior high school students from three junior high schools in Beijing, Chongqing, and Shijiazhuang, China.

RESULTS

(1) The overall experience of adolescents' socially adverse emotions was at the moderate level; boys' experience of shyness and loneliness was significantly higher than that of girls; the experience of shyness and loneliness in the second grade was significantly higher than that in the first grade; (2) Parental conflict was significantly negatively correlated with family functioning and significantly positively correlated with adolescents' socially adverse emotions, while family functioning was significantly negatively correlated with adolescents' socially adverse emotions; (3) Family functioning partially mediates the relationship between parental conflict and adolescents' shyness and completely mediates the relationship between parental conflict and adolescents' loneliness.

CONCLUSION

Compared to adolescents' shyness, family functioning plays a more important mediating role in the relationship between parental conflict and adolescents' loneliness.