Patrick T. Davies

Children and Marital Conflict: The Impact of Family Dispute and Resolution

Marital Conflict and Child Development. Conflict in the Marital Dyad. Childrens Reactions to Marital Conflict. Effects of Specific Aspects of Marital Conflict on Children. Interparental Conflict and the Family. Methodology and Message. Conclusions, Implications, and Guidelines.

Pathways between profiles of family functioning, child security in the interparental subsystem, and child psychological problems

This study was designed to delineate pathways between systems profiles of family functioning, childrens emotional insecurity in the interparental relationship, and their psychological adjustment in a sample of 221 children and their parents. Consistent with family systems theory, cluster analyses conducted with assessments of marital, coparental, and parent-child functioning indicated that families fit into one of four profiles: (a) cohesive families, characterized by warmth, affection, and flexible well-defined boundaries in family relationships; (b) disengaged families, reflected in high levels of adversity and low levels of support across family subsystems; (c) enmeshed families, evidenced by high levels of discord and weak maintenance of relationship boundaries in the family unit; and (d) adequate families, defined by elevated parental psychological control within a larger family context of low discord and high warmth. In comparison to children in cohesive families, children in enmeshed and disengaged families exhibited greater signs of insecurity in the interparental relationship concurrently and internalizing and externalizing symptoms both concurrently and 1 year later. Structural equation models revealed that a latent, multimethod measure of insecurity in the interparental relationship partially mediated associations between family enmeshment and disengagement and childrens psychological symptoms 1 year later. Results are discussed in relation to how they inform and refine a family-wide model of the emotional security hypothesis.

The role of child adrenocortical functioning in pathways between interparental conflict and child maladjustment.

This study examined the interplay between interparental conflict and child cortisol reactivity to interparental conflict in predicting child maladjustment in a sample of 178 families and their kindergarten children. Consistent with the allostatic load hypothesis (McEwen & Stellar, 1993), results indicated that interparental conflict was indirectly related to child maladjustment through its association with individual differences in child cortisol reactivity. Analyses indicated that the multimethod assessment of interparental conflict was associated with lower levels of child cortisol reactivity to a simulated phone conflict between parents. Diminished cortisol reactivity, in turn, predicted increases in parental reports of child externalizing symptoms over a 2-year period. Associations between interparental conflict, child cortisol reactivity, and child externalizing symptoms remained robust even after demographic factors and other family processes were taken into account.

Interparental Discord and Adolescent Adjustment Trajectories: The Potentiating and Protective Role of Intrapersonal Attributes

This prospective study of 360 adolescent-mother dyads examined whether associations between marital discord and trajectories of adolescent depressive symptoms and delinquency varied as a function of three intrapersonal attributes: temperament, childhood behavior problems, and perceived family support. Difficult temperament (i.e., dysrhythmicity, poor task orientation) potentiated the effects of marital discord on adolescent trajectories of adjustment, whereas heightened perceptions of family support protected adolescents from the adverse effects of marital discord. Adolescents with behavior problem histories were initially less vulnerable to marital discord; however, the high levels of depressive symptoms exhibited by adolescents with childhood behavior problems persisted over time only when they were exposed to elevated marital discord. The effects of the moderators differed in terms of duration and course.

Constructive and destructive marital conflict, emotional security and children’s prosocial behavior

BACKGROUND This study addresses the gaps in understanding the relationship between constructive and destructive marital conflict and childrens prosocial behavior from a process-oriented perspective. METHOD Data were drawn from a three-wave study of 235 families with children ages 5-7 at wave 1. Relations between constructive and destructive marital conflict, childrens emotional security, warm parenting and childrens prosocial behavior were examined through the use of structural equation modeling. RESULTS Even after controlling for prior levels of childrens prosocial behavior at wave 1, childrens emotional security acted as an intervening variable between both constructive and destructive marital conflict and childrens prosocial behavior over time. CONCLUSIONS These findings advance the relationship between marital conflict and childrens adjustment by focusing on childrens prosocial behavior and highlight the need to further investigate the impact of positive dimensions of marital conflict on dimensions of childrens positive social functioning.

Depression and heavy alcohol use among adolescents: Concurrent and prospective relations

This study of over 1,000 adolescents focused on common and distinctive correlates of four subgroups--no problem, depressed only, heavy drinking only, and mixed (depressed and heavy drinking). Correlates were evaluated from the domains of personal dispositions (e.g., temperament), interpersonal relations (e.g., parent and peer), stressful life events, and other problem behaviors (e.g., delinquency, substance use). The no-problem subgroup differed from the other three subgroups in the direction of healthier functioning on almost all measures. The mixed subgroup reported the most pervasive, low levels of functioning, with the highest levels of childhood externalizing problems and stressful life events, the lowest levels of family social support, and high levels of delinquency and substance use. The depressed-only subgroup reported a more internalized pattern characterized by childhood avoidance problems, a difficult temperament (e.g., inflexibility, withdrawal, low task orientation), interpersonal stressors, and poor coping strategies. The heavy-drinking-only subgroup was characterized by higher drinking levels by primary caregivers and lower levels of family cohesion as reported by primary caregivers. The 1-year prospective findings were generally consistent with the concurrent findings in that variables that were associated with transitions toward and away from depression and heavy drinking were associated with specific transitions (e.g., childhood externalizing problems were associated with the transition from no problem to heavy drinking).

Hostility and withdrawal in marital conflict : Effects on parental emotional unavailability and inconsistent discipline

This study examined the nature of pathways between marital hostility and withdrawal, parental disagreements about child rearing issues, and subsequent changes in parental emotional unavailability and inconsistent discipline in a sample of 225 mothers, fathers, and 6-year-old children. Results of autoregressive, structural equation models indicated that marital withdrawal and hostility were associated with increases in parental emotional unavailability over the one-year period, whereas marital hostility and withdrawal did not predict changes in parental inconsistency in discipline. Additional findings supported the role of child rearing disagreements as an intervening or mediating mechanism in links between specific types of marital conflict and parenting practices. Implications for clinicians and therapists working with maritally distressed parents and families are discussed.

Children's influence in the marital relationship.

In a 3-wave longitudinal study, the authors tested hypotheses regarding childrens influence on the marital relationship, examining relations between interparental discord and childrens negative emotional reactivity, agentic behavior, dysregulated behavior, and psychosocial adjustment. Participants were 232 cohabiting mothers and fathers who completed questionnaires and a marital conflict resolution task. Consistent with theory, interparental discord related to childrens negative emotional reactivity, which in turn related to childrens agentic and dysregulated behavior. Agentic behavior related to decreases in interparental discord, whereas dysregulated behavior related to increases in discord and elevations in childrens adjustment problems. Person-oriented analyses of agentic and dysregulated responses indicated distinct clusters of children linked with meaningful individual differences in marital and psychosocial functioning. Results are discussed in terms of possible mechanisms of child effects, such as increased parental awareness of childrens distress potentially leading to reduced marital conflict.

Longitudinal relations between parental drinking problems, family functioning, and child adjustment

Relations between maternal and paternal problem drinking symptoms and destructive marital conflict, parenting problems, and childrens internalizing and externalizing problems were investigated. Participants were community families with a child in kindergarten who completed questionnaire measures at baseline (N=235), 1 year later (N=227), and 2 years later (N=215). Structural equation modeling revealed that paternal problem drinking at Time 1 was associated with greater destructive marital conflict 1 year later. In turn, destructive marital conflict was related to decreased parental warmth and increased parental psychological control; these parenting problems were associated with greater child internalizing and externalizing problems at the third time point. Further analyses revealed that the indirect effects of paternal drinking on childrens adjustment were significant, and that relations remained even after including autoregressive effects. Findings are discussed in terms of family process models for relations between parental drinking and child adjustment problems.

The implications of emotional security theory for understanding and treating childhood psychopathology.

Understanding why interparental difficulties pose a risk to children in families experiencing domestic violence is an urgent task for ameliorating childhood psychopathology, particularly in light of the paucity of knowledge on the unfolding mediating mechanisms and the potentiating and protective conditions that underlie the multiplicity of pathways between domestic violence and child maladjustment. Toward addressing this significant gap, this paper examines how the emotional security theory (EST) may foster advances in our understanding of the genesis, course, and treatment of childrens psychological problems in families experiencing domestic violence. Following an overview of the theoretical assumptions and significance of translating the emotional security theory to high-risk contexts, we address how childrens difficulties in preserving security may emerge in the face of domestic violence and accompanying forms of severe family adversity, and illustrate the implications of emotional insecurity for childhood psychopathology in homes characterized by domestic violences. In the final section, we address how the EST may be useful in informing public policy and intervention initiatives designed to reduce the burden of mental illness.