Esther S. Kluwer

When Forgiving Enhances Psychological Well-Being: The Role of Interpersonal Commitment

The present research addresses the question of when and why forgiving might enhance psychological well-being. The authors predict that forgiving is associated with enhanced well-being but that this association should be more pronounced in relationships of strong rather than weak commitment. This hypothesis received good support in Studies 1-3. Studies 2 and 3 addressed the issue of why forgiving might be associated with psychological well-being, revealing that this association was reduced after controlling for psychological tension (i.e., a psychological state of discomfort due to conflicting cognitions and feelings). Study 4 revealed that in the context of marital relationships, tendencies toward forgiving ones spouse exhibited a more pronounced association with psychological well-being than did tendencies to forgive others in general.

Responses to gender inequality in the division of family work: The status quo effect

This study addresses responses to gender inequality in the division of family work as well as the outcomes of those responses. Ninety-eight husbands and 95 wives responded to stimulus information manipulated by means of scenarios. Participants reported more wife-demand/husband-withdraw interaction than husband-demand/wife-withdraw interaction when the wife was discontent with her spouses contribution to family work, but the demand/withdraw interaction patterns were reported equally when the husband was discontent. The data showed support for the Status Quo Effect Hypothesis: The likelihood that the spouses contribution to family work remained unchanged (i.e., status quo maintenance) was rated higher than the likelihood that the spouse would increase his/her contribution to family work. In line with this, when the wife was discontent, wife-demand/husband-withdraw interaction was negatively related to the likelihood that the spouse would do more family work. Finally, participants reported a greater likelihood for discontent spouses than for content spouses to increase their own contribution, but discontent husbands were more likely to do so than discontent wives.

Family Involvement and Helping Behavior in Teams

Helping behavior at work has become increasingly important, with organizations making more and more use of cooperative work practices. The difficulty is that employees are facing growing demands beyond the workplace. This study investigates the mechanisms by which family involvement (family structure, family tasks, family support) affects helping behavior in teams. Based on a sample of 495 team members, the results show that having a supportive partner and performing care tasks increase helping behavior via enhanced fulfillment and skills. Having young children is directly and negatively related to helping behavior. The authors also conducted separate analyses for men and women.

The structure and management of conflict: Fighting or defending the status quo

Although conflict and negotiation studies have examined symmetrical structures in which both parties want change, or asymmetrical structures in which one party wants change and the other to maintain the status quo, no research provided a direct comparison of both structures. Two experiments were conducted to fill this void. Results show that in asymmetrical structures challengers engage in more problem solving and more contending, have less of a loss frame and perceive less control than defendants, and are perceived be less successful. In symmetrical structures, behavior and attitudes of parties are more alike and there is more reciprocation of problem solving and yielding. Furthermore, findings reveal that challengers see their defendant as less friendly and more dominant than defendants see their challengers. Finally, no evidence was obtained that social value orientation moderates these effects. Implications for conflict theory and research, and for third party interventions in symmetrical versus asymmetrical conflicts, are discussed.

The Use of Questionnaires in Conflict Research

This article describes strengths and weaknesses of using questionnaires in studying conflict. We address five issues that we came across in our own research on organizations and close relationships. The first issue is that conflict is a sensitive topic which has consequences for the acquisition of participants and the response to surveys. Second, we deal with the validity of questionnaires that measure conflict behavior. The third issue concerns self-serving and social desirability biases in measures of conflict. The fourth issue is that conflict surveys usually entail correlational and cross-sectional designs, which prohibit conclusions about causality. Fifth, we deal with the fact that conflict data are often dyadic data, which yields practical and methodological problems. We illustrate these issues with our own research and include recommendations to overcome these limitations of using questionnaires in conflict research.

Conflict in Intimate vs Non-Intimate Relationships: When Gender Role Stereotyping Overrides Biased Self-Other Judgment

An experiment was conducted to explore whether bias in self-other judgments pertains to conflict in intimate relationships and is overruled by gender role stereotypes in non-intimate relationships between males and females. It was predicted that when the opponent was ones intimate partner, both male and female participants would rate themselves as intending more cooperative and less competitive behavior than their partner. In non-intimate relationships, females were predicted to rate their male opponent as less cooperative and more competitive, whereas males were predicted to rate their female opponent as more cooperative and less competitive. A sample of 46 male and 46 female participants rated their own intention to cooperative and competitive conflict behaviors, and that of an opposite-sex opponent, in a hypothesized conflict situation. The results supported the hypotheses. Implications for further research, as well as applications in the field of marital counseling, are discussed.

Parental work characteristics and time with children: The moderating effects of parent's gender and children's age

This article investigates the association between work characteristics and parent–child interaction time. In addition to studying the commonly considered working hours, the authors investigated the effects of job demands and resources such as job insecurity, autonomy and non-standard hours. Moreover, they analysed whether these associations were different for fathers than for mothers and for parents with young vs adolescent children. The authors analysed self-collected data on 2593 Dutch parents and found that parents participated more in parent–child activities when they worked shorter hours, experienced more autonomy, could be reached by their children at work and worked during non-standard hours. Nevertheless, the work characteristics had little explanatory value additional to the working hours. The association between working hours and parent–child time was weaker for mothers and for parents with young children. Moreover, the beneficial effect of non-standard hours was stronger for mothers and autonomy more relevant for parents with adolescent children.

I’ll Never Forgive You: High Conflict Divorce, Social Network, and Co-Parenting Conflicts

The relation between divorce, co-parenting conflicts, and children’s adjustment problems has been well established. An unresolved question for research and clinical interventions, however, is how conflicts between parents are maintained and/or escalate. This cross-sectional research tested the hypothesis that co-parenting conflicts in divorced couples are associated with perceived social network disapproval and that this relation is mediated by parents’ tendency to forgive each other. In Study 1, a convenience sample of 136 divorced parents recruited via online forums, we showed that perceived social network disapproval was indeed positively related to co-parenting conflicts and that parents’ tendency to forgive the other parent—albeit partly—explained this relationship. Strength of our research is that in Study 2, 110 parents referred to children’s mental health care because the wellbeing of the children was severely compromised by the severity of the conflicts between parents, we replicated these results. In both studies perceived social network disapproval and co-parenting conflicts were positively related and this link was mediated by forgiveness: perceived social network disapproval was negatively related to forgiveness, which in turn was negatively related to more parental conflicts.

Aspirations and occupational achievements of Dutch fathers and mothers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how work and family aspirations relate to occupational achievements and gender differences herein. Design/methodology/approach – Using data from 2009 the authors examined the relationship between career and childrearing aspirations and occupational achievements of Dutch parents. Using path modeling in Mplus, the authors investigated both direct and indirect pathways where aspirations were related to occupational achievements via time allocations. Findings – The authors found that ranking being promoted instead of a non-career aspiration as the most important job aspiration was positively related to occupational achievements. Surprisingly, the authors also found that ranking childrearing as the most important life role aspiration was positively related to earnings among fathers. Research limitations/implications – Investigating aspirations in multiple domains simultaneously can provide new information on working parents’ occupational achievements. Pract...

Predicting adaptation to parenthood: The role of responsiveness, gratitude, and trust

The influence of positive relationship processes, specifically perceived responsiveness, felt gratitude, and felt trust, on perceived adaptation to parenthood was investigated. It was hypothesized that both higher initial levels prior to pregnancy as well as increases over time in perceived responsiveness, felt gratitude, and felt trust predicted better adaptation to parenthood. Data from a five-wave longitudinal study of 109 newlyweds who became parents during the course of the study were used. Results showed that baseline positive relationship processes before pregnancy positively predicted adaptation to parenthood up to 4 years later. Changes over time were even stronger predictors of adaptation. Positive relationship processes may buffer against stressors during challenging life transitions, improving ones own adaptation as well the adaptation of ones partner.