Objectives

The present study had two primary aims: (a) to test the mediating role of anger regulation in the relation between family processes and externalizing problems; (b) to test the moderating role of culture (specifically, independent and interdependent self-construals) in the relation between anger regulation and symptomatology via a moderated mediation model.

Design

The sample comprised 166 Korean American adolescents (54.2% male), who were recruited from the Midwestern region of the United States. Adolescents’ ages ranged from 11-15 years old (M = 13.0 years; SD = 1.2). Cross-sectional data were collected via adolescent self-report questionnaires.

Results

Results indicated that the anger regulation variables (either individually or collectively) mediated the influence of family processes (i.e., family conflict, family cohesion, and father-adolescent communication) on externalizing problems. Moreover, 2 indirect effects on externalizing problems were conditional upon adolescents’ independent self-construal.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that clinical intervention efforts for addressing externalizing problems may benefit from targeting anger regulation strategies. However, such interventions should be tailored to consider cultural context, since mediation effects may be moderated by cultural factors such as self-construal.