The influence of parent conflict style on children

Families constantly manage tension between autonomy from and connection to family members (T. C. Sabourin, 2003). Family conflict is an important maintenance behavior where this tension often plays out. Specifically, we hypothesized that the negotiation of family conflict between parents and children will be an important factor in the willingness of a young adult child to identify with family. Using a sample of young adults from 2 U.S. locations, regression analysis indicated that conflict styles mediated the association between family communication patterns and shared family identity. Specifically, the level of conformity orientation within the family emerged as moderator of the pattern of mediation. Additionally, findings suggested the avoiding conflict style may be particularly detrimental to shared family identity.