Emotional, cognitive, and family systems mediators of children's adjustment to interparental conflict.

Abstract

Emotional, cognitive, and family systems processes each have been identified as mediators of the association between interparental conflict and children's adjustment. However, little is known about how they function in relation to one another because they have not all been assessed in the same study. This investigation examined the relations among children's exposure to parental conflict, their appraisals of threat and blame, their emotional reaction, and triangulation into parental disagreements. One hundred fifty ethnically diverse 8-12 year-old children and both of their parents participated in the study. Comparisons of three models proposing different relations among these processes indicated that they function as parallel and independent mediators of children's adjustment. Specifically, children's self-blaming attributions and emotional distress were uniquely associated with both internalizing and externalizing problems, whereas perceived threat uniquely predicted internalizing problems and triangulation uniquely predicted externalizing problems. KeywordsInterparental Conflict; Triangulation; Appraisals; Distress Reactions; Internalizing Problems; Externalizing Problems; Psychological Adjustment; Cognitive Contextual Framework; Family Systems Theory Efforts to understand the impact of interparental conflict on children have identified several factors that may explain how exposure to chronic, hostile, and poorly resolved conflict can lead to adjustment problems. Specifically, children's appraisals of threat and blame, their emotional reactivity and distress, and triangulation into parental disagreements each has been shown to mediate the relationship between parental discord and child maladjustment (e.g., E. M. Cummings, Schermerhorn, Davies, Goeke-Morey, & J. S. Cummings 2006;Davies, Harold, Goeke-Morey, & Cummings, 2002;Grych, Harold, & Miles, 2003;Grych, Raynor & Fosco, 2004). This research provides insight into different aspects of children's responses to interparental conflict, but is limited in that most studies have examined only one of these factors. Consequently, it is not clear how they are interrelated and which may have unique relations with child adjustment problems. To develop a more thorough understanding of the effects of parental conflict on children, it is important to build Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Gregory M. Fosco, Department of Psychology, Marquette University, P.O. Box 1881, Milwaukee, WI, 53201-1881. E-mail: Gregory.Fosco@Marquette.edu, Phone: (414) 288-3487, Fax: (414) 288-6073.. Gregory M. Fosco, Department of Psychology, Marquette University; John H. Grych, Department of Psychology, Marquette University Publisher's Disclaimer: The following manuscript is the final accepted manuscript. It has not been subjected to the final copyediting, fact-checking, and proofreading required for formal publication. It is not the definitive, publisher-authenticated version. The American Psychological Association and its Council of Editors disclaim any res...

Families with Distinct Levels of Marital Conflict and Child Adjustment: Which Role for Maternal and Paternal Stress?

“…Sample items include ''I often see my parents arguing'' (frequency), ''My parents get really mad when they argue'' (intensity), and ''Even after my parents stop arguing, they stay mad at each other'' (resolution). This scale has demonstrated good reliability and validity in past research (Fosco and Grych 2008;Grych et al 1992) and yielded adequate reliability in the current sample (a = .83).…”

“…This type of conflict tactic elicits positive emotional reactions (e.g., happiness) from children and reduces the probability of children having aggressive tendencies (Cummings et al 2004). In contrast, the use of destructive tactics, such as verbal hostility, physical aggression, nonverbal anger, and withdrawal, elicits negative emotional and behavioral reactions from children Goeke-Morey et al 2003) and may make them more vulnerable to developing adjustment problems (Buehler et al 2007;Fosco and Grych 2008). Indeed, several empirical studies have long shown that exposure to high levels of marital conflict is associated with of a wide variety of difficulties for children and adolescents, including externalizing behaviors and internalizing problems, social maladjustment, and deficits in cognitive competency (Camisasca et al 2013a(Camisasca et al , b, 2014Davies and Cummings 1994;Fosco and Grych 2008;McCoy et al 2009McCoy et al , 2013Pendry and Adam 2013).…”

Repercussões do Conflito Conjugal para o Ajustamento de Crianças e Adolescentes: Um Estudo Teórico

“…A avaliação cognitiva é importante, pois é através dela que os filhos tentam entender as causas e as consequências do conflito conjugal (Grych & Fincham, 1990). Este processo de avaliação inclui a percepção da ocorrência do conflito e o processamento cognitivo, visando a sua interpretação (Fosco & Grych, 2008). Em consequência, a percepção de ameaça refere-se ao medo acerca da escalada da agressividade entre os pais, de serem envolvidos no conflito, ou de que o desfecho leve à separação.…”

Relación parental, autoestima y sintomatología depresiva en jóvenes adultos. Implicaciones de los conflictos interparentales, coalición y triangulación

“…Por lo tanto, se considera relevante entender este problema a raíz de la cercanía emocional que se desarrolla con la figura materna. De este modo, la calidad de la relación con la madre ejerce un papel protector de los conflictos (con un efecto positivo en la autoestima), por lo que los jóvenes parecen ser más sensibles a los conflictos y a las asociaciones con la figura materna (a través de la coalición y la triangulación), lo que puede disminuir la autoestima (Fosco & Grych, 2008). En lo que concierne el modelo del padre, se identificó igualmente un efecto significativo y negativo de la relación con el padre en los conflictos.…”