Marital Conflict and Adolescents' Peer Aggression: The Mediating and Moderating Role of Mother-Child Emotional Reciprocity

This study examined the role of mother-adolescent emotional reciprocity in connections between marital conflict and adolescent aggression with peers. Data were collected from a racially diverse community sample of 268 adolescents and their mothers. Adolescents reported on parents' marital conflict, and mother-adolescent positive and negative emotional reciprocity were coded from videotaped observations. Teachers provided assessments of adolescents' overt and relational aggression with peers. Structural equation modeling revealed both direct and indirect paths in connections between marital conflict and adolescents' peer aggression. Mother-adolescent emotional reciprocity both mediated and moderated the association between marital conflict and peer aggression. Patterns of association linking marital conflict to peer aggression were similar for African American and European American adolescents; however, differences were observed for men and women.