@article{ref1,
title="Stepfamily relationship quality and children's internalizing and externalizing problems",
journal="Family Process",
year="2018",
author="Jensen, Todd M. and Lippold, Melissa A. and Mills-Koonce, Roger and Fosco, Gregory M.",
volume="57",
number="2",
pages="477-495",
abstract="The stepfamily literature is replete with between-group analyses by which youth residing in stepfamilies are compared to youth in other family structures across indicators of adjustment and well-being. Few longitudinal studies examine variation in stepfamily functioning to identify factors that promote the positive adjustment of stepchildren over time. Using a longitudinal sample of 191 stepchildren (56% female, mean age = 11.3 years), the current study examines the association between the relationship quality of three central stepfamily dyads (stepparent-child, parent-child, and stepcouple) and children's internalizing and externalizing problems concurrently and over time. <br><br>RESULTS from path analyses indicate that higher levels of parent-child affective quality are associated with lower levels of children's concurrent internalizing and externalizing problems at Wave 1. Higher levels of stepparent-child affective quality are associated with decreases in children's internalizing and externalizing problems at Wave 2 (6 months beyond baseline), even after controlling for children's internalizing and externalizing problems at Wave 1 and other covariates. The stepcouple relationship was not directly linked to youth outcomes. Our findings provide implications for future research and practice.<br><br>© 2017 Family Process Institute.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0014-7370",
doi="10.1111/famp.12284",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/famp.12284"
}