Parenting Styles and Interparental Conflict as Predictors of Adolescent Aggression: The Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation

Abstract

Adolescent aggression is a behavioral problem associated with family factors and emotion regulation. This study examined gender differences in parenting style, interparental conflict, emotion regulation, and aggression, and analyzed the associations of maternal and paternal parenting, interparental conflict, and emotion regulation with adolescent aggression. A cross-sectional design was used with 223 tenth- and eleventh-grade students from one senior high school and one vocational high school in East Jakarta, selected through purposive sampling. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent sample tests, and structural equation modeling. No significant gender differences emerged in parenting style, interparental conflict, or aggression, but females reported higher adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation than males. Maternal rejection was directly associated with aggression, particularly among females, while paternal rejection was associated with adaptive emotion regulation. Interparental conflict was indirectly associated with aggression through maladaptive emotion regulation, and both emotion regulation types were associated with aggression. Given the cross-sectional design, findings should be interpreted as associative rather than causal.