| dc.description.abstract | Background: In 2016 about 86 thousand children in the Netherlands were involved in a divorce from parents who were either married or living together. Adolescents involved in a divorce appear to experience a lower general well-being and display more internalizing problems than children from intact families. Aim: This study was aimed to investigate the relation between the amount of interparental conflict, perceptions of peer belonging and internalizing problem behavior of adolescents with divorced parents. Method: A total of 188 adolescents filled out an online questionnaire. The group included 115 girls and 73 boys between the ages of 11 and 19 years old. To answer the research question, a multiple regression analysis was performed. This evaluated the main effects of interparental conflict and peer belonging on internalizing problems. Furthermore, it investigated the possibility of a correlation between interparental conflict and peer belonging. Results: Interparental conflict was significantly and positively correlated with internalizing problem behavior. Furthermore, peer belonging was significantly negatively correlated with internalizing problem behavior. Lastly, there was no significant interaction-effect of interparental conflict and peer belonging on internalizing problem behavior. Conclusion: This research shows that interparental conflict is a risk factor for internalizing problems, on the contrary peer belonging is a protective factor. Finally, peer belonging does not compensate for interparental conflict in relation to internalizing problem behavior. Keywords: Divorce, Adolescents, Interparental Conflict, Peer Belonging, Internalizing Problems. | |
