本研究は,青年期の子どもがいる家族を対象に,両親の夫婦間葛藤が子どもによる両親間葛藤認知を媒介として子どもの抑うつ傾向と関連するかどうかを検討することを目的として実施された。父親,母親,および子どもを対象に,質問紙調査を実施し,両親回答による夫婦間葛藤の深刻さ評価と子ども回答による両親間葛藤認知,父母への情緒的つながり,および抑うつ傾向を測定した。その結果,男女ともに両親間葛藤が深刻なほど葛藤への巻き込まれ感が強まり,さらに両親の夫婦間葛藤に対する自己非難や恐れの認知につながっていた。男子については,こうした自己非難や恐れの認知が抑うつに関連していたが,女子についてはこうした相関は見られなかった。一方,両親間葛藤の深刻さは両親への情緒的つながり,特に,父親への情緒的つながりにより強い関連が見られた。抑うつとの関連では,同性の親との情緒的つながりが重要であることが明らかになった。母親による夫婦間葛藤認知は子どもの葛藤認知に有意に関連していたが,父親のそれは有意ではなく,いずれも子どもの抑うつ傾向とは直接関連しなかった。

The present study examined the mediational role of adolescents' appraisals of their parents' marital conflict on the adolescents' depressive symptoms. The adolescents' fathers and mothers completed scales tapping marital attributions, which in turn assessed the seriousness of their marital conflict. The adolescents completed measures appraising their parents' marital conflict, their emotional bonding toward their parents, and their depressive symptoms. The results indicated that the more severe the martial conflict was, the more the adolescents felt caught between their parents, and that, in turn, the adolescents, regardless of their gender, felt threat and self-blame for their parents' marital conflict. However, the appraisals of threat and self-blame were linked with depressive symptoms only for the boys. Also, the seriousness of the marital conflicts was linked to the adolescents' emotional bonding toward their parents, especially their fathers. In terms of depressive symptoms, the significance of the adolescents' emotional bonding with the same-sex parent was indicated. Using triadic data, only the mothers' appraisals were significantly linked to the adolescents' appraisals of their parents' marital conflict, and neither the mothers' nor the fathers' appraisals were found to be directly related to the adolescents' depressive symptoms.