A meta-analysis on interparental conflict, parenting, and child adjustment in divorced families: Examining mediation using meta-analytic structural equation models

Abstract

Every year, parental divorce becomes the reality of many families. The aim of this meta-analysis was to identify post-divorce family processes to explain child functioning. Both direct and indirect associations between interparental conflict, parenting, and child adjustment were examined. After a systematic search for articles published before October 2019, we coded 2257 correlations in 115 samples of N = 24,854 divorced families. Analyses consisted of: (1) Performing multiple three-level meta-analyses to calculate the bivariate correlations between interparental conflict, parenting (i.e., support, hostility, structuring, intrusiveness, parent-child relationship quality, parent-child conflict, and role diffusion) and child psychosocial adjustment. (2) Testing four meta-analytic structural equation models in which parenting dimensions were examined as potential mediators. First, results showed that correlations between interparental conflict, parenting, and child adjustment were mostly significant, in the expected direction, and of small effect size. Second, parental support, hostility, structuring, intrusiveness, and role diffusion indeed served as mediating mechanisms underlying the persistent link between interparental conflict and children's internalizing and externalizing problems. This was not true for dyadic parent-child processes. Third, our findings hinted towards a stronger impact of negative versus positive parenting behaviors, and parental role diffusion was considered a particular risk in the context of post-divorce interparental conflict.