(PS12-28) Including Minoritized Populations in the Conversation of Family Conflict: Evaluating Discrepancies in Measurement and Emotional Security’s Role in Youth Adjustment

There is a substantial body of literature on family conflict and processes (e.g., Emotional Security Theory) that lead to varying adjustment outcomes in youth, such as internalizing and externalizing problems (Davies & Cummings, 1994). However, racially/ethnically minoritized populations have been historically excluded in research, so many measures of family conflict were created and deemed reliable with inadequately diverse and non-generalizable samples. There is also evidence that suggests family conflict is reported differently in minoritized samples (McLoyd et al., 2001). Preliminary analyses, from an ongoing family-based RCT, aimed to explore possible discrepancies between minoritized and non-minoritized families in 1) the reliability of common measures of family conflict, and 2) a moderated mediation model examining emotional security’s role in youth adjustment.

Families  (n = 70) included youth ages 4.5-17 years old (M = 10.77, SD = 2.91) and their caregivers, who were recruited from a larger effectiveness trial being conducted in community settings across Indiana. 44.3% of the sample (n = 31) identified as minoritized. Discrepancies were evaluated using standard self-report measures in the field and an observational task coded using the Family Interactions Coding System (Revised) (FICS-R; Bergman & Cummings, unpublished coding system 2023). Youth completed the Security in the Family System measure and caregivers completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire regarding their youth’s internalizing and externalizing problems.

Tests of reliability for the self-report measures of conflict resulted in equal or lower reliability in minoritized families. Notably, none of the self-report measures reached an alpha of 0.80 or higher for the minoritized sample. The observational measure of family conflict emerged as the most reliable measure for minoritized families (ICC = 0.73-0.89).  A moderated mediation test of family race/ethnicity’s influence on the indirect effect of family conflict on youth adjustment through emotional security was significant (b = -1.88, 95% percentile CI [-4.81, -0.73]), suggesting that youth from racially/ethnically minoritized families may have greater adjustment problems when they have high, but not low, levels of emotional insecurity.

These results imply that self-report surveys need to be unbiased and relevant for diverse families and highlight the benefits of observational data. Additionally, results emphasize the unique role emotional security plays in minoritized youth’s exposure to family conflict. By including minoritized populations in the conversation of family conflict, the results of this study may inform researchers and clinicians that assessing and treating youth exposed to conflict is not one size fits all.