Patterns of interparental conflict, parenting, and children's emotional insecurity: A person-centered approach

Breaking the cycle of emotional flooding: the protective role of women's emotional intelligence in couple's conflict

Introduction

One of the most damaging aspects, both for people's well-being and for close relationships, is conflict. Beyond different stressors, the emotions evoked, their regulation and an appropriate conflict resolution strategy will reduce negative consequences. Emotional Intelligence facilitates social relationships, but little applied research has been done on the relationship with couple conflict and emotional flooding, particularly from the perspective of women. Therefore, the present study analyzes the role of Perceived Emotional Intelligence (PEI) and the mediating effect of Positive Conflict Resolution strategies (PCR) in couples' conflicts from women's perspective, examining its effect on Emotional Flooding (EF) and Satisfaction.

Methods

Through a cross-sectional design, the relationships between variables were analyzed using group comparisons and means of a structural equation model (SEM) in a sample of 692 women.

Results

Significant differences were found between the groups by age, length of relationship, and motherhood. The SEM revealed a good fit. PEI predicted 71.8% of the variance in EF and 35% in Satisfaction through PCR and Conflict.

The Divorce Process and Child Adaptation Trajectory Typology (DPCATT) Model: The Shaping Role of Predivorce and Postdivorce Interparental Conflict

Divorce has been conceptualized as a process. Research has extensively demonstrated that it is pre/postdivorce family environment factors that primarily account for the variability in children's adaptation over parental divorce process rather than the legal divorce per se. Amongst various factors, interparental conflict has been consistently identified as a prominent one. Surprisingly, a single source is still lacking that comprehensively synthesizes the extant findings. This review fills this gap by integrating the numerous findings across studies into a more coherent Divorce Process and Child Adaptation Trajectory Typology (DPCATT) Model to illustrate that pre/postdivorce interparental conflict plays crucial roles in shaping child adaptation trajectories across parental divorce process. This review also summarizes the mechanisms (e.g., child cognitive and emotional processes, coparenting, parent-child relations) via which pre/postdivorce interparental conflict determines these trajectories and the factors (e.g., child gender and age, child coping, grandparental support) that interact with pre/postdivorce interparental conflict to further complicate these trajectories. In addition, echoing the call of moving beyond the monolithic conceptualization of pre/postdivorce interparental conflict, we also review studies on the differential implications of different aspects (e.g., frequency versus intensity) and types (e.g., overt versus covert) of interparental conflict for child adjustment. Last, limitations of prior studies and avenues for future research are discussed. The proposed framework may serve as a common knowledge base for researchers to compare/interpret results, detect cutting edges of the fields, and design new studies. The specificity, complexity, nuance, and diversity inherent within our proposed model await to be more fully revealed.

Parental Relationship Status as a Moderator of the Associations Between Mothers' and Fathers' Conflict Behaviors and Early Child Behavior Problems

This study examines interparental conflict and associations with child behavior problems among a large, diverse sample of families with low income (N = 2,691) using path model analyses of mothers' and fathers' reports of constructive interparental conflict, destructive interparental conflict, and intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization at 15 months and child emotional insecurity and child behavior problems at 36 months. Multigroup models examined whether parental relationship status (i.e., married, cohabiting, and churning) moderated these associations. Fathers' perceptions of interparental conflict behaviors showed few direct associations with child outcomes, whereas mothers' perceptions of interparental conflict showed more robust associations with child outcomes. Specifically, mother-reported destructive conflict was associated with higher levels of child emotional insecurity and child behavior problems across parental relationship status subgroups. Mother-reported constructive conflict had a small negative association with child behavior problems in cohabiting families. Child emotional insecurity mediated the association of maternal destructive conflict on child behavior problems. Although churning families experienced higher levels of moderate and severe interparental conflict, associations linking destructive conflict to child behavior problems were consistent across parental relationship subgroups. There were few direct effects of father-reported constructive and destructive conflict on child well-being. However, the results supported the notion that fathers play an influential role in the family system via maternal reports of IPV victimization. Results of this study suggest that the mechanisms underlying emotional security theory, in which child emotional insecurity mediates the associations between maternal destructive conflict and child behavior problems, apply to a large and racially diverse sample of socioeconomically disadvantaged children.

Explaining Heterogeneity of Daily Conflict Spillover in the Family: The Role of Dyadic Marital Conflict Patterns

In this multi-informant, longitudinal, daily diary study, we investigated whether long-term dyadic patterns of marital conflict resolution explain the heterogeneity in short-term day-to-day cross-lagged associations between marital conflict intensity and mother-adolescent conflict intensity. The sample consisted of 419 adolescents (44.6% girls, M_age  = 13.02, SD = 0.44, at T1; M_age  = 17.02, SD = 0.44, at T5), their mothers (N = 419, M_age  = 44.48, SD = 4.17, at T1), and their fathers (N = 419, M_age  = 46.76, SD = 4.99, at T1). Mothers and fathers reported on their marital conflict resolution strategies annually across 5 years. Mother-father daily conflict intensity (mother-reported) and mother-adolescent daily conflict intensity (mother- and adolescent-reported) were assessed for 75 days across 5 years. We hypothesized that long-term marital conflict resolution patterns would moderate the short-term daily dynamics of conflict between the marital and the mother-adolescent dyads. Latent Class Growth Analysis revealed four types of families based on long-term dyadic marital conflict resolution, including families where mostly constructive or mostly destructive conflict resolution was used. Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling was used to investigate the daily levels and short-term daily dynamics of conflict, revealing that for most families there were no day-to-day lagged associations between marital conflict and mother-adolescent conflict. Results showed that long-term conflict resolution patterns did not moderate the short-term dynamics of daily conflict. However, differences among long-term marital conflict resolution patterns were found in the levels of daily conflict, such that in families with long-term destructive conflict resolution patterns, daily conflict intensity was higher.

Coping profiles in the context of global environmental threats: a person-centered approach

Profound environmental changes will affect vast human populations, if not pose an existential threat to humanity, raising the question how individuals will adapt psychologically to address these changes and how they manage stress and anxiety in the face of chronic threats such as climate change. We propose that ecological coping (efforts to manage adaptational demands of a degrading environment) is an important construct. Our purpose is to use a person-centered approach to identify profiles of ecological coping and to determine how these profiles differ on mental health outcomes and pro-environmental behaviors in an online survey (N = 334 U.S. adults). Using Latent Profile Analysis (LPA), we also investigate whether these profiles are explained based on general (demographics) or environment-specific (e.g., eco-stressors) factors. Results showed: (1) The identification of two profiles: Adaptive Approach Coping (P1; 69.46%) and Maladaptive Avoidance Coping (P2; 30.54%); (2) Environment-related factors (vs. health) are associated with the profiles; (3) All 6 environment-specific characteristics predicted profile membership. Future research and policy can use these profiles to develop interventions to increase pro-environmental engagement to address climate change.

Spillover and Crossover Effects: Mothers' and Fathers' Intimate Partner Violence, Parent-Child Aggression Risk, and Child Behavior Problems

The high co-occurrence of intimate partner violence (IPV) and physical child abuse suggests that studying these forms of aggression simultaneously, bidirectionally, and longitudinally is critical. Guided by family systems theory, this study examined parent-child aggression (PCA) risk, IPV victimization, and child behavior problems as reported by mothers and fathers when their child was 18 months and at 4 years old, to evaluate whether negative processes can transmit across family subsystems (i.e., spillover hypothesis) and/or across individuals (i.e., crossover hypothesis). Results indicated that mothers' PCA risk predicted their subsequent IPV victimization and their reported child behavior problems (i.e., spillover effects) as well as fathers' reported IPV victimization (i.e., crossover effect). Maternal reports of child behavior problems also predicted mothers' reported IPV victimization and fathers' reported child behavior problems, indicating child-driven effects. Overall, mothers rather than fathers appear more vulnerable to harmful spillover effects. Findings underscore the need for early prevention and intervention given the complex, transactional nature of family violence.

The Associations of Constructive and Destructive Interparental Conflict to Child Well-Being Among Low-Income Families

Interparental conflict is a well-established precursor to child maladjustment. However, little is understood of the role of different interparental conflict in shaping the developmental outcomes of young children, especially those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. This study uses data from a large and racially diverse sample of low-income, unmarried mothers with young children (n = 1,297) to examine the processes linking parental constructive conflict, destructive conflict, intimate partner violence (IPV) to child behavior problems, and child emotional insecurity as a mediator of these processes. Path analyses were conducted to estimate structural paths between (a) conflict constructs and child behavior problems, (b) conflict constructs and child emotional insecurity, and (c) child emotional insecurity and child behavior problems. Results demonstrated that constructive conflict was associated with decreased levels of both child emotional insecurity and child behavior problems, whereas destructive conflict was associated with increased levels of both child outcomes. IPV was associated with increased levels of child emotional insecurity only. Child emotional insecurity mediated the links between all three conflict constructs and child behavior problems. Such findings suggest the need for clinicians to help raise awareness regarding the consequences of children's exposure to different interparental conflict and educate parents about children's sense of emotional security in the family.

Bidirectional Spillover in the Family across the Transition to Parenthood

Although family systems theory posits reciprocal causality between subsystems of the family, such as intimate partner violence exacerbating harsh parenting and vice versa, longitudinal studies with cross-lagged models have been used infrequently to test these principles. As guided by the spillover model, this study examined bidirectional associations between couple dysfunction, parent-child aggression risk, and child functioning across the transition to parenthood to determine whether and how disruptions in one subsystem relate to problems in other family subsystems. Participants were 201 first-time mothers and 151 fathers from a diverse community sample, evaluated during pregnancy, and reassessed two more times through their child's first 18 months of life. Individual and dyadic path model results indicate bidirectional spillover effects between parent-child aggression risk and child functioning for both mothers and fathers, and spillover from parent-child aggression risk to couple dysfunction for mothers but not fathers. However, limited spillover effects were identified between couple functioning and child adjustment, in contrast to previous work. Findings suggest that spillover can happen reciprocally and early in the family, supporting transactional models of behavior and highlighting the need for early family level intervention.

Does Time with Dad in Childhood Pay Off in Adolescence?

OBJECTIVE

We aim to understand the association between father involvement in middle childhood and adolescent behaviors and whether the relationship differs by father residence.

BACKGROUND

Internalizing and externalizing behaviors in adolescence can trigger a cascade of negative outcomes later in life, including lower educational attainment, criminal justice involvement, and future psychological distress. Evidence, largely focusing on nonresidential fathers and older cohort, suggests that father involvement-particularly closeness and engagement-may reduce adolescents' internalizing and externalizing behaviors.

METHOD

We use data six waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a birth cohort survey representative of births in large U.S. cities between 1998 and 2000, to estimate OLS regression models examining (a) whether father involvement in middle childhood is associated with fewer problem behaviors at Age 15, (b) if the salience of father involvement differs depending on whether the father was present in the home (i.e., was married to or living with his child's mother) in middle childhood, and (c) whether father involvement matters differently based on the child's sex.

RESULTS

We find protective associations between father involvement and adolescent behavioural outcomes that persist even among children who were not living with their fathers. In models stratified by the child's sex, father involvement matters for both boys and girls. In all models, father presence alone, apart from active involvement, is not significantly associated with behavioral outcomes.

CONCLUSION

Father involvement protects against negative adolescent behaviors even among children with nonresidential fathers and for both boys and girls.

IMPLICATIONS

These results suggest that policies that promote greater father involvement and father-child bonds, rather than other options such as promoting marriage, may be more effective in reducing behavioral problems among adolescents.

Effortful Control Development in the Face of Harshness and Unpredictability

Using psychosocial acceleration theory, this multimethod, multi-reporter study examines how early adversity adaptively shapes the development of a self-regulation construct: effortful control. Investigation of links between early life harshness and unpredictability and the development of effortful control could facilitate a nuanced understanding of early environmental effects on cognitive and social development. Using the Building Strong Families national longitudinal data set, aspects of early environmental harshness and early environmental unpredictability were tested as unique predictors of effortful control at age 3 using multiple regression. Early harshness variables were financial harshness, mothers' and fathers' observed parenting, mothers' and fathers' reported use of harsh discipline, and harsh neighborhood conditions. Early unpredictability was measured by number of paternal transitions. Cues of harshness, specifically observed unresponsive parenting, observed harsh parenting, and neighborhood harshness, did significantly negatively predict effortful control. Paternal transitions also significantly predicted effortful control, but in the opposite (i.e., positive) direction. The results corroborate previous research linking quality of parenting to the development of children's effortful control and place it within an evolutionary-developmental theoretical framework. Further, the results suggest that neighborhood harshness may also direct developmental trajectories of effortful control in young children, though the mechanisms through which this occurs are still unclear. This is the first study to explicitly investigate effortful control development in early childhood within the harshness and unpredictability framework.

Hostile interactions in the family: Patterns and links to youth externalizing problems

In line with family systems theory, we examined patterns of hostile interactions within families and their associations with externalizing problems among early-adolescent children. Using hostility scores based on observational data of six dyadic interactions during a triadic interaction (n = 462) (i.e., child-to-mother, mother-to-child, child-to-father, father-to-child, mother-to-father, father-to-mother)-Latent Profile Analysis supported three distinct profiles of hostility. The Low/Moderate Hostile profile included families with the lowest levels of hostility across dyads; families in the Mutual Parent-Child Hostile profile scored higher on parent-child hostility, but lower on interparental hostility; the Hostile Parent profile showed higher levels of parent-to-child and interparental hostility, but lower child-to-parent hostility. Concerning links to youth outcomes, youth in the Mutual Parent-Child Hostile profile reported the highest level of externalizing problems, both concurrently and longitudinally. These results point to the importance of examining larger family patterns of hostility to fully understand the association between family hostility and youth adjustment.

Coparenting Conflict Behavior, Parent-Adolescent Attachment, and Social Competence with Peers: An Investigation of Developmental Differences

Coparenting conflict, which refers to the conflict between parents regarding parenting, has played a central role in children's development and adjustment. The perspective of family and peer systems linkage has suggested that coparenting conflict is linked to peer-related development, but this view has yet to be clarified. This study aimed to investigate the relationships among coparenting conflict behavior, parent-adolescent attachment, and social competence with peers as well as the developmental differences of these relationships in early, middle, and late adolescence within Chinese families. Families (N = 808) that included fathers, mothers, and focal adolescents (53% female, M_age = 13.66 ± 2.53) participated in this study. Fathers and mothers reported their coparenting conflict behaviors separately, and the adolescents rated parent-adolescent attachment and social competence with peers. Results showed that fathers' overt coparenting conflict behavior was related to social competence with peers through the indirect effects of father- and mother-adolescent attachments, whereas mothers' covert coparenting conflict behavior was related to social competence with peers through the indirect effect of mother-adolescent attachment in the total sample. The multigroup analysis revealed that these relationships were significant in early and late adolescence. In addition, fathers' covert coparenting conflict behavior was related to mother-adolescent attachment in late adolescence and all the relationships were insignificant in middle adolescence. The findings support the systematic perspective of family-peer system linkage and highlight the gender differences of parents in the effects of coparenting conflict on social competence with peers and the developmental differences during adolescence.

Coparenting Behavior, Parent-Adolescent Attachment, and Peer Attachment: An Examination of Gender Differences

Coparenting relationship has been linked to the development and adaptation of adolescents. However, whether and how fathers and mothers' individual behaviors in coparenting relationships are linked to peer outcomes of boys and girls during adolescence have yet to be clarified. The present study addresses this gap in knowledge by examining the relationships among coparenting behavior, parent-adolescent attachment, and peer attachment of adolescents and the gender differences of these relationships. Families (N= 820) that included fathers, mothers, and focal adolescents (53% female, M_age = 13.70 ± 2.51) participated in this study. The fathers and mothers reported their coparenting behavior to their spouse and the adolescents completed the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment. Structure equation modeling in the total sample revealed that maternal positive and paternal negative coparenting behaviors were related to peer attachment through the indirect effects of father- and mother-adolescent attachments. Multi-group analysis revealed that father- and mother-adolescent attachments had strong predicting effects on the peer attachment of offsprings with the same sex. Maternal positive coparenting behavior was related to the peer attachment of boys and girls through the indirect effects of the father- and mother-adolescent attachments. Paternal negative coparenting behavior had a double-edged effect on girls' peer attachment and was not related to boys' peer attachment. This study extended the perspective of a family-peer system linkage by providing evidence that parents' individual behavior in the coparenting process was linked to adolescents' peer outcome. Moreover, this research suggested that encouraging mothers to enhance their positive relationship with fathers and preventing fathers from overtly pursuing conflicts and covertly disparaging mothers may be effective methods to promote adolescents' peer relationships.