Exploring the Link between Interparental Conflict and Adolescents' Adjustment in Divorced and Intact Iranian Families

Although a considerable body of research has indicated that interparental conflict and divorce are risk factors for adolescents' adjustment problems, few studies have examined the implications for adolescent adjustment in Iranian society. In the US, emotional insecurity, which describes children's feelings of vulnerability within the family, and parents' depressive symptoms, have been identified as possible explanatory processes for why interparental conflict is related to adolescents' adjustment problems. However, these relations have not been investigated in Iran, including among divorced as well as intact families. Incorporating multiple family processes (i.e., emotional security, parental depressive symptoms), in this quasi-experimental exploratory descriptive study, we examined these relations based on a sample of 144 parent-adolescent dyads, 69 of which were from divorced families, in Iran. Parents rated adolescents' exposure to conflict and reported their own levels of depressive symptoms. Adolescents rated their behavioral adjustment and reported their emotional security in their parents' relationship. Based on moderated mediation analyses, we found that parents' depressive symptoms mediated the pathway between interparental conflict and adolescents' adjustment, specifically for divorced families in our Iranian sample. Our findings highlight the importance of investigating between family functioning and adolescent adjustment in multiple societal contexts.