Positive Conflict Styles within Mexican American Adolescent Couples: The Impact of Healthy Communication Skills

Background. The ability to form and sustain safe and fulfilling romantic relationships begins in adolescence. Communication skills are commonly targeted as the mechanism to achieve that within healthy relationship and teen dating violence (DV) prevention programs. Such programs often draw from marital literatures, where communication behaviors are extensively studied, however it remains unclear whether these behaviors are relevant to adolescents’ relationships and how they impact relationship quality and/or violence. Adolescents’ use of positive conflict tactics may serve a protective role in promoting healthy dating relationships. Moreover, Mexican American couples may have unique ways of navigating conflict that are culturally meaningful, yet remain understudied. The aim of the present study is to explore Mexican American adolescent couples’ conflict management styles and their association with relationship quality and dating violence.

Methods. Thirty-four Mexican American dating couples from a large Southwestern state (ages 15-17; M=16.25, SD=0.8) completed individual surveys and video-taped discussions as a couple where they discussed each partner’s most recent or salient conflict (7 minutes each). Research assistants coded videos in their entirety and provided ratings at 30-second intervals (r=.8) using the System for Coding Interactions in Dyads. The present study analyzed observed dyadically-rated balance of power (4 categories: balanced, male-dominant, female-dominant, conflictual imbalance; coded as 1=balanced or 0=all other styles), conflict management style (6 categories: female pursuit/male withdrawal, male pursuit/female withdrawal, disengaged, high conflict-hostile, high conflict-expressive, harmonious; coded as 1=harmonious or 0=all other styles), and problem-solving communication (ranging from 1:very low to 5: high), as well as self-report individually-rated affect (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-SF, ranging from 1:never to 5: always), relationship satisfaction and commitment (Perceived Relationship Quality Components Inventory, ranging from 1:not at all to 7:extremely), and total DV victimization and perpetration (Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory, coded as 1=any violence or 0=no violence in the current relationship).

Results. Adolescents with greater DV perpetration, B=-1.01, SE=.52, Wald= 3.83, Exp(B)=.365, p=.050, and victimization, B=-.98, SE=.49, Wald= 3.94, Exp(B)=.376, p=.047, were less likely to use a harmonious conflict management style. Similarly, they were less likely to exhibit a balance of power within their romantic relationship (B=-1.37, SE=.58, Wald= 5.67, Exp(B)=.253, p=.017, and B=-1.25, SE=.54, Wald= 5.37, Exp(B)=.287, p=.021, respectively). Problem Solving communication was positively correlated with positive affect, r=.26, p=.039, romantic relationship satisfaction, r=.26, p=.033, and romantic relationship commitment, r=.29, p=.016. After using a step-wise linear regression model, only romantic relationship commitment was a significant predictor, B=.26, SE=.10, β=.30, t(1)=2.534, p=.014.

Conclusions and Implications. Social workers are in a unique position to assist adolescent couples to establish healthy problem-solving communication, both through direct practice and program planning. This may be particularly important for Mexican American youth, a growing segment of the United States youth population for whom culturally grounded program components are critical. A strength of our study was the use of both self-report and observational measures. Our results indicate that couples who utilize positive conflict tactics, including a balance of power and harmonious exchanges (i.e., relaxed, respectful dialogue), may be at reduced risk for dating violence.