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CHARACTERISTICS OF PARENTAL CONFLICT AS PREDICTORS OF ADOLESCENTSВ’ SELF-EFFICACY

T. Velki, I. Duvanjak, M. Milic

Abstract

The family has a key role in a child's development. Numerous studies have shown the negative impact of domestic violence and parental conflict on the child's functioning and adaptation and these negative impacts also have long-lasting consequences on adolescent self-efficacy. The research goal was to examine the influence of studentsВ’ perception of parental conflict on their social, emotional and academic self-efficacy. 448 secondary school adolescents participated in the study, 62% were boys and 38% were girls (the average age was M=15.84, SD=0.69). During regular class they filled out the Self-efficacy questionnaire (Vuli?-Prtori? and Sori?, 2006), Children perception of parental conflict scale (Macuka, 2012) and gave some demographic data about themselves (age, gender, school grades). The results of the regression analysis showed that for the prediction of social and emotional self-efficacy the significant predictor was only one dimension of adolescent perception of parental conflict, i.e. studentsВ’ perception of threat caused by parental conflict. For the prediction of academic self-efficacy and academic achievement other two dimensions of parental conflict were significant, i.e. studentsВ’ self-blame and conflict characteristics. In accordance with the research goal, academic self-efficacy was best explained by parental conflict predictors (12.7% variance explanation). We can conclude that the perception of parental conflict has a bigger negative impact on the student's academic adaptation in comparison to social and emotional self-efficacy. The emergence of the problem regarding school adjustment of adolescents can serve as an indicator for the presence of domestic violence. Therefore it is desirable for secondary schools to include parents into the school prevention programs.

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