Longitudinal Effects of Post-divorce Interparental Conflict on Children’s Mental Health Problems through Fear of Abandonment: Does Parenting Quality Play a Buffering Role?

In a sample of 559 children (ages 9–18), researchers investigated whether: (1) fear of abandonment mediated the association between post-divorce interparental conflict (IPC) and mental health problems, and (2) parent-child relationship quality moderated the association between IPC and fear of abandonment. Mediation analyses indicated that pretest IPC predicted fear of abandonment 3-months later, which then predicted child- and teacher-reported mental health problems 10-months later. The hypothesized protective effect of a high-quality parent-child relationship was not observed. IPC predicted fear of abandonment for all children, except for those with low- and moderate-quality father-child relationships, for whom IPC was not significantly related to fear of abandonment. Findings highlight the need to optimize child coping programs and improve parenting-after-divorce programs to reduce IPC.