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?

摘要

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.