Moderation of associations between interparental stress and (mal)adaptation by adolescents' personality: Contrasting differential susceptibility and diathesis–stress models

• Published in: Journal of personality Vol. 89; no. 4; pp. 617 - 633
• Main Authors: Eldik, Willemijn M., Haan, Amaranta D., Arends, Lidia R., Prinzie, Peter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Durham Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.08.2021; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Adaptation; Adaptive behavior; Adolescents; Adults; diathesis–stress model; differential susceptibility hypothesis; Efficacy; emerging adulthood; Emotional instability; Extraversion; Fathers; Five factor model; Generalizability; Imagination; Internalization; interparental stress; Life transitions; Moderation; Moderators; Mothers; Original; Parents & parenting; Personality; Personality development; Stress; Susceptibility; Teenagers
• ISSN: 0022-3506; 1467-6494
• DOI: 10.1111/jopy.12603

Objective This study aimed to contrast differential susceptibility and diathesis–stress models in examining adolescents' Big Five personality dimensions as moderators of longitudinal associations between interparental stress and (mal)adaptation in emerging adulthood (i.e., self‐efficacy, externalizing and internalizing behavior). Method Data from the large longitudinal Flemish Study on Parenting, Personality and Development were used (475 families, adolescents' Mage = 15.82, SDage = 1.15), with both parents reporting on their interparental stress and mothers reporting on the adolescent's personality and in 2009, and emerging adults reporting on their own (mal)adaptive functioning in 2009 and 2015 and their personality in 2015. Results Multivariate models showed that extraversion, benevolence, emotional stability and imagination were uniquely related to (mal)adaptation across the 6‐year interval. In general, our results exhibited no consistent moderating role for adolescents' personality. Only for girls, high levels of extraversion functioned as a “susceptibility maker” in associations between father's interparental stress and self‐efficacy, and, low levels of emotional stability functioned as a “vulnerability marker” in associations between parents' interparental stress and self‐efficacy. Conclusions The interaction effects as well as their (restricted) generalizability across gender should be replicated before drawing firm conclusions. Adolescents' personality characteristics were important predictors of (mal)adaptation during the transition into emerging adulthood.