Parental Behaviors and Adolescent Adjustment: Mediation via Adolescent Trait Emotional Intelligence
Author(s): Alberto Alegre, Mark J. Benson
Abstract: The study examines the relationship between parental behaviors, late adolescents' trait emotional intelligence, and late adolescents' adjustment problems: internalizing and externalizing. Three parental behaviors are considered: availability, discipline and harsh punishment, as are four trait emotional intelligence dimensions: attention to feelings, acceptance of feelings, clarity of feelings, and emotional repair. This study proposes a model of relationships where trait emotional intelligence would mediate between parental availability and late adolescents' adjustment. Participants (N = 329) completed survey questionnaires. The results show that parental availability and parental harsh discipline correlate with both the trait emotional intelligence dimensions and the adjustment dimensions while discipline does not. However, regression analysis shows only partial support for the model. While clarity of feelings shows evidence of such a mediating role between parental availability and adolescents' internalizing problems, none of the other dimensions do. Also, no trait emotional intelligence dimension shows evidence of a mediating role with externalizing problems.
Pages: 83-96
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