Interparental Conflict and Adolescent Adjustment: Why Does Gender Moderate Early Adolescent Vulnerability?

The role of child gender in the relationship between interparental conflict and adolescent psychological symptoms was examined in a sample of 924 children 10 to 15 years old and 172 of their mothers. Interparental conflict was a significantly stronger predictor of adolescent internalizing symptoms for girls than boys across type of informant (i.e., mother or child). In examining why the risk posed by interparental conflict differed by gender, further analyses indicated that girls' tendencies to experience elevated levels of communion partly accounted for their greater vulnerability to interparental conflict.