The Relationship between Parent-Adolescent Conflict and Academic Adjustment Among Adolescents:The Mediating Role of Conflict Resolution Strategies

The present study examined the mediating role of conflict resolution strategies in the relationship between parent-adolescent conflict and educational adjustment among male school students. In this correlational study, 398 school students responded to the Parent-Adolescent Conflict Questionnaire (Asadi Younesi, Mazaheri, Shahidi, Tahmasian& Fayazbakhsh, 1390), the Conflict Resolution Styles Inventory (Kurdek, 1994) and the Adjustment Inventory for School Students (Sinha& Singh, 1993). In order to examine the structural relations of the hypothesized model, structural equation modeling was used. Results indicated that the partially mediated model of conflict resolution strategies in the relationship between parent-adolescent conflict and educational adjustment among school students fitted well with the data. Also, all of the regression weights in the proposed model were statistically significant and  predictors of the model accounted for 65% of the variance of the educational adjustment. Results by emphasizing the critical role of the quality of interpersonal interactions in the family context showed that a part of common variance of parent-adolescent conflict and educational adjustment is explainable via the changes of adaptive and non-adaptive conflict resolution strategies scores.