Marital quality and mother–child and father–child interactions with school-aged children.

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to examine parent-child interactions with school-aged children in the context of the parents' marital relationship. Sixty families with a school-aged child served as subjects. Mother-child and father-child teaching interactions were videotaped, from which frequency counts of efficacious teaching behaviors were obtained for each parent-child teaching interaction. Parents completed a self-report measure of marital problems. A dyad score of marital problems was formed by adding the husbands' and wives' scores. A two-level variable of marital problems was then derived by performing a median split on the marital problem dyad scores. Normative comparisons suggested that the couples whose scores fell below the median were characterized as nondistressed and the couples whose scores fell above the median were characterized as slightly discontented with their marital relationship. Few differences in teaching styles were detected between mothers and fathers in the nondistressed group. Mothers in the slightly discontented group used more questions, positive feedback, informational feedback, and verbal task management and intruded less often into their children's learning efforts than did the fathers in this group. Fathers with increased reports of marital problems used less positive feedback and were more intrusive; mothers in this group appeared to compensate for a less than satisfactory marriage by being more involved in teaching their children. In turn, children of slightly discontented mothers were more actively responsive to their teaching behaviors than were children of nondistressed mothers.Just as researchers realized, a decade and a half ago, the limitations of unidirectional models of socialization, they today recognize the limitations of studying socialization in isolation from the larger family context. Researchers and clinicians alike now recognize that families comprise several subsystems (i.e., spousal or marital, parent-child, and the sibling subsystem), each of which affects and is affected by events that occur in the other subsystems (Belsky, 1981). In particular, this transactional or systems approach to socialization suggests that parenting both influences and is influenced by the child; in addition, the quality of parenting is influenced by the marital relationship.Research on the relation between marital quality and parenting that child developmentalists have undertaken has focused on families with infants or toddler-aged children. The results of these research efforts have consistently demonstrated that supportive husband-wife relationships facilitate the adaptation of mothers and fathers to their parental roles during the transition to parenthood (

Family relationships during infancy and later mother and father vocabulary use with young children

“…This finding was significant for both mothers and fathers, even after controlling for demographic characteristics and the overall quality of parent-child interactions during infancy. These findings are congruent with previous work with older preschool and school-aged children, which found that supportive and satisfying marital relationships during childhood were predictive of stimulating parent language input (Brody et al, 1986;Pratt et al, 1992). The findings of this study extend the existing knowledge to families with younger children, demonstrating that the quality of the marital relationship during infancy may be related to the language used by mothers and fathers during toddler years, a critical time for language development.…”

“…Existing research suggests that the quality of early family relationships, including the motherfather-child relationship as well as the mother-father relationship may impact the way parents interact with their children Brody et al, 1986;Cox et al, 1989;Grych, 2002;Lindahl et al, 1997;Pratt et al, 1992;, however, it is necessary to extend this research to specifically consider the vocabulary used by parents in interactions with their younger language-learning children.…”

“…Using a sample of predominantly middle-class two-parent families, Pratt et al (1992) found that mother and father conversational styles were similar, but that more satisfied parents spoke in longer utterances. Brody, Pillegrini, and Sigel (1986) also considered the relationship between marital quality and parent language input in a sample of Caucasian two-parent middle-to upper-middle class families. Brody et al (1986) looked at marital stress and dyadic teaching interactions with mothers and fathers with children five to seven years of age.…”

“…Brody, Pillegrini, and Sigel (1986) also considered the relationship between marital quality and parent language input in a sample of Caucasian two-parent middle-to upper-middle class families. Brody et al (1986) looked at marital stress and dyadic teaching interactions with mothers and fathers with children five to seven years of age. The authors found that in nondistressed families, there were no differences in the language used by mothers and fathers.…”

Externalizing in preschoolers and early adolescents: A cross-study replication of a family model.

“…Impressive correlations between prebirth marital quality and parenting behavior with infants have been documented in several samples (Cox, Owen, Lewis, & Henderson, 1989;Grossman, Eichler, & Winikoff, 1980;Heinicke et al, 1986;Lewis, Tresch-Owen, & Cox, 1988). More harmonious marriages have been linked with developmental progress in infants and toddlers (Dickie, 1987;Easterbrooks & Emde, 1988;Goldberg & Easterbrooks, 1984) and young school-age children (Brody, Pillegrini, & Sigel, 1986;R A. Cowan, Cowan, Schulz, & Heming, in press).…”