Marital Quality Spillover and Young Children's Adjustment: Evidence for Dyadic and Triadic Parenting as Mechanisms

Abstract

Research has evidenced support for the spillover model, which posits that parents' marital functioning influences child adjustment by eroding parenting and coparenting in dyadic (mother–child and father–child) and triadic (mother–father–child) contexts. However, prior work has not simultaneously investigated dyadic and triadic parenting as mechanisms of spillover. Furthermore, although evidence indicates that the marital system affects child adjustment by influencing parents' behavior, research has not explored whether child behaviors in parent–child interactions also serve as mechanisms. To address these gaps, we examined the spillover model using observational measures of parent and child behavior in parent–child dyadic interactions as well as coparenting in triadic interactions. We also explored parent and child gender differences in spillover effects. Participants were families with children 3 to 6 years of age (n = 149; 62% Caucasian). Findings indicated that marital functioning influences child adjustment by disrupting parent–child interactions in dyadic and triadic contexts, although results differed by child/parent gender and outcome examined. First, children's responsiveness to their mothers emerged as a significant mechanism of spillover effects for boys' internalizing and girls' externalizing behavior. Second, for girls and boys, marital functioning was indirectly related to children's internalizing and externalizing behavior through reductions in coparenting warmth. Finally, there was little evidence that parent gender moderated the indirect effect of dyadic parenting, except that child responsiveness to mothers (vs. to fathers) was more strongly related to child adjustment. These findings underscore the need for interventions targeting dyadic and triadic parent–child interactions in the face of marital distress.

Family Resilience Among Sojourning Japanese Mothers: Links to Marital Satisfaction and Children's Behavioral Adjustment

“…This study found a significant connection between the roles of both family resilience and marital satisfaction on children's behavioral adjustment, while taking into account mothers' perceived stress-related factors. The results are consistent with research on parenting stress and children's adjustment in which higher levels of perceived stress are related to children's behavioral difficulties (Ozeki & Knowles, 2009;Stroud et al, 2015).…”

“…The connection between marital satisfaction and children's adjustment has been examined in other contexts (Stroud, Meyers, Wilson, & Durbin, 2015). For instance, researchers have found that marital distress has been associated with children's emotional and behavioral adjustment (Fishman & Meyers, 2000;Katz & Gottman, 1993).…”

Couple Conflict in Parents of Children with versus without Autism: Self-Reported and Observed Findings

“…Substantial research on the general population has documented that a high level of couple conflict and the use of maladaptive conflict resolution strategies by parents negatively impacts child functioning and behavior problems (e.g., McCoy, George, Cummings, & Davies, 2013; Stroud, Meyers, Wilson, & Durbin, 2014). On the other hand, there is also evidence that contexts of high child-related challenges put parents at risk for frequent, intense, and unresolved couple conflict.…”

Multiple Levels of Family Factors and Oppositional Defiant Disorder Symptoms Among Chinese Children

“…Beyond the parent–child dyad, the marital relationship has increasingly been recognized as an important factor in child development (Stroud, Meyers, Wilson, & Durbin, ). The adverse effect of exposure to marital conflict on child internalizing and externalizing behaviors has been well documented (Bornovalova et al., ).…”