Marital Conflict And Youth Adjustment In Mexican-Origin Families: The Moderating Role of Sibling Intimacy

Marital conflict poses risks for youth adjustment, particularly in Mexican culture, where family harmony and cohesion are highly valued. However, most longitudinal research has focused on European American families, leaving gaps in understanding Mexican-origin families. Sibling relationships, crucial in Mexican families, may buffer the stress of marital conflict. Emerging research suggests that positive sibling relationships can mitigate the effects of marital conflict on youth adjustment. Extending a small body of research on the implications of marital conflict in Latinx families, this study tested between-person questions by comparing across families and within-person questions by comparing the same family to themselves across time.
Data came from 246 two-parent Mexican-origin families. Mothers, fathers, and two siblings participated in home interviews at Time 1 when adolescents were 14.49 years old (SD = 3.43) and 5 and 8 years later. Mothers and fathers reported on background characteristics and their martial conflict while youth reported on their sibling intimacy, depressive symptoms, and risk behaviors.
Longitudinal multilevel models were conducted for depressive symptoms and risk behaviors separately, and for mothers and fathers separately, with demographic factors controlled. Results showed that, father-reported and mother-reported marital conflict predicted youth depressive symptoms at the between-family level, but not at the within-person level. Further, at the between-family level, a reverse stress-buffering effect was observed. That is, in families with high sibling intimacy, father-reported marital conflict was positively related to youth depressive symptoms. Conversely, in families with low sibling intimacy, father-reported marital conflict was not associated with depressive symptoms. For risk behaviors, only between-family sibling intimacy emerged as significant predictors. These findings provide a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between marital conflict and youth adjustment, highlighting the importance of longitudinal multilevel analysis. Additionally, the study underscores the potential protective role of positive sibling relationships.