The dyadic trait fit between adolescent aggression and parent alienation in a process involving family interactions, adoption status, and adolescent externalizing behavior.

Abstract

To better understand the small but noteworthy risk for externalizing behaviors for adopted youth, the present study tested a complex family process involving personality and family interactions as an explanation of adopted adolescent adjustment. Goodness of fit theory, person-environment transactional theory, and Family Communication Patterns Theory (FCPT) informed the study. Data from 615 families from the Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study (SIBS; McGue et al., 2007) were used to test study hypotheses using the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM). Personality was assessed using the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). Observational data were used to measure family members' individual communicative behavior, operationalized as Conformity- and Conversation-orientations, and adolescent conflict. Overall, findings supported the personality-initiated family process and the study's central hypothesis. Indeed, the dyadic trait fit (DTF) between adolescent aggression and parent alienation had an affect on a family interactive process that explained substantial variance in adolescent externalizing behavior. The direct associations among study constructs explained the most variance (and accounted for the largest increases in variance) in adolescent Conversation, parent Conversation, adolescent conflict, and adolescent externalizing behavior. Moreover, direct associations between adoption status and (a) conflict and (b) externalizing appear to be far more complex than previous research has suggested.