Constructive and Destructive Marital Conflict, Parenting, and Children's School and Social Adjustment.

This study addresses the links between destructive and constructive marital conflict and mothers' and fathers' parenting to understand associations with children's social and school adjustment. Multi-method, longitudinal assessments of 235 mothers, fathers, and children (129 girls) were collected across kindergarten, first, and second grades (ages 5-7 at Time 1; ages 7-9 at Time 3). Whereas constructive marital conflict was related to both mothers' and fathers' warm parenting, destructive marital conflict was only linked to fathers' use of inconsistent discipline. In turn, both mothers' and fathers' use of psychological control was related to children's school adjustment, and mothers' warmth was related to children's social adjustment. Reciprocal links between constructs were also explored, supporting associations between destructive marital conflict and mothers' and fathers' inconsistent discipline. The merit of examining marital conflict and parenting as multidimensional constructs is discussed in relation to understanding the processes and pathways within families that affect children's functioning.

Understanding children's emotional processes and behavioral strategies in the context of marital conflict.

Marital conflict is a distressing context in which children must regulate their emotion and behavior; however, the associations between the multidimensionality of conflict and children's regulatory processes need to be examined. The current study examined differences in children's (N = 207, mean age = 8.02 years) emotions (mad, sad, scared, and happy) and behavioral strategies to regulate conflict exposure during resolved, unresolved, escalating, and child-rearing marital conflict vignettes. Children's cortisol levels were assessed in relation to child-rearing and resolved conflict vignettes. Anger and sadness were associated with escalating and child-rearing conflicts, fearfulness was related to escalating and unresolved conflicts, and happiness was associated with resolution. Anger was associated with children's strategies to stop conflict, whereas sadness was associated with monitoring and avoidant strategies. Cortisol recovery moderated the link between fearfulness and behavioral regulation. These results highlight the importance of children's emotions and regulatory processes in understanding the impact of marital conflict.

A secure base from which to explore close relationships.

The theory of attachment as a secure-base relationship integrates insights about affect, cognition, and behavior in close relationships across age and culture. Empirical successes based on this theory include important discoveries about the nature of infant-caregiver and adult-adult close relationships, the importance of early experience, and about stability and change in individual differences. The task now is to preserve these insights and successes and build on them. To accomplish this, we need to continually examine the logic and coherence of attachment theory and redress errors of emphasis and analysis. Views on attachment development, attachment representation, and attachment in family and cross-cultural perspective need to be updated in light of empirical research and advances in developmental theory, behavioral biology, and cognitive psychology. We also need to challenge the theory by formulating and testing hypotheses which, if not confirmed, would require significant changes to the theory. If we can accomplish these tasks, prospects for important developments in attachment theory and research are greater than ever, as are the prospects for integration with other disciplines.

Exploring children's emotional security as a mediator of the link between marital relations and child adjustment.

Guided by the emotional security hypothesis, this study examined whether links between marital relations and children's adjustment were mediated by children's emotional security, as evidenced by their emotional reactivity (e.g., vigilance, distress), regulation of exposure to parent affect (avoidance, involvement), and internal representations in the context of interparental relations. Multiple methods and contexts were used to assess 6- to 9-year-olds' emotional security in response to standardized, simulated conflicts involving parents. Latent variable path analysis supported a theoretical pathway whereby marital dysfunction was linked with adjustment problems as mediated by response processes indicative of emotional insecurity in relation to parental conflicts. Emotional reactivity and internal representations were most closely linked with marital relations and child adjustment, especially with regard to internalizing symptoms. The importance of understanding children's emotional security in the context of the marital subsystem is discussed.

Preschoolers' responses to ongoing interadult conflict: the role of prior exposure to resolved versus unresolved arguments.

Children's past experiences with interadult conflict are likely to influence their responses to ongoing arguments. Preschoolers' (4- to 5-year-olds) responses to interadult conflict were examined as a function of experimentally manipulated histories of exposure to resolved and unresolved arguments. Children were presented with two live arguments that were either resolved or unresolved, then they were presented with a third argument that was interrupted in progress (i.e., unresolved), and they were interviewed next. Children's overt-behavioral responses were videotaped and coded for distress level. The results support the notion that past experiences with conflict resolution ameliorate children's distress responses to ongoing arguments. In comparison to children previously exposed to unresolved conflict, those exposed to a history of resolved disputes were more likely to (a) exhibit lowered behavioral distress, (b) predict a lower likelihood of a conflictual outcome for the couple's argument, (c) report less negative perceptions of the arguing adults, and were less likely to (d) endorse intervention in conflict through attempts to stop the disputes; (c) and (d) pertained only to girls.

Marital conflict and child adjustment: an emotional security hypothesis.

An emotional security hypothesis that builds on attachment theory is proposed to account for recent empirical findings on the impact of marital conflict on children and to provide directions for future research. Children's concerns about emotional security play a role in their regulation of emotional arousal and organization and in their motivation to respond in the face of marital conflict. Over time these response processes and internalized representations of parental relations that develop have implications for children's long-term adjustment. Emotional security is seen as a product of past experiences with marital conflict and as a primary influence on future responding. The impact and interaction of other experiential histories within the family that affect children's emotional security are also examined, with a focus on parent-child relations.

Responses of physically abused and nonabused children to different forms of interadult anger.

Responses to various forms of interadult anger were examined in 2 groups of 6-11-year-olds: 44 low-SES children with a history of physical abuse and exposure to interspousal aggression, and 44 low-SES children exposed to interspousal aggression but with no history of physical abuse or other child maltreatment. Children were presented with videotaped segments of adults in angry and friendly interactions. Angry segments varied on (a) the type of anger expression (nonverbal, verbal, verbal-physical), and (b) whether anger was resolved. In general, physically abused children reported greater fear than nonabused children in response to all forms of interadult anger. Moreover, abused children appeared particularly sensitive to whether anger between adults was resolved. Findings are discussed with regard to factors that may mediate relations between exposure to family violence and the development of psychopathology in children from highly aggressive home environments.

Individual differences in preschoolers' physiological and verbal responses to videotaped angry interactions.

Individual differences in selection of intensity of angry interactions and physiological and self-reported responses to interadult anger were examined in preschoolers (N = 34). Children watched two videotaped angry interactions between adults, while their heart rates and skin conductance responses and levels were monitored; then they were interviewed. Before the second argument, children were given the perceived choice of watching an intense or mild angry exchange. Individual differences in responding to the angry interactions were found. Both (a) children with relatively higher externalizing behavior problems and (b) boys who chose to watch intense anger had lower tonic heart rates; 80% of boys with externalizing problems chose to watch intense anger. Further, children who chose to watch intense anger (a) exhibited lower declines in heart rates upon the presentation of the argument, (b) perceived the actors as more angry, and (c) reported lower amounts of distress during the argument than those who chose mild anger.

The impact of anger between adults on siblings' emotions and social behavior.

Peer and sibling dyads (older children = 5-7 years; younger children = 2-5 years) were presented with simulations of friendly, angry, and resolution interactions between a male adult and the mother in the context of play sessions. Expressions of positive effect increased among female siblings during the anger period and continued to be more common in the resolution period than in other groups. Prosocial behavior among male siblings greatly increased in the resolution period, with siblings generally more prosocial towards each other than peers in this period. The findings suggest that siblings may attempt to buffer each other from the stress of exposure to adults' discord.

Emotional and cardiovascular responses to adults' angry behavior and to challenging tasks in children of hypertensive and normotensive parents.

Cardiovascular, overt-motor, and verbal-reported responses to interadult emotional expressions, including anger, and to challenging task situations were examined in a sample of 49 10-14-year-old children of hypertensive (EH) and normotensive parents (NT). Sons of EH parents showed greater systolic blood pressure reactivity to interadult anger and to the digit span task than sons of NT parents. A consistent pattern was not found for girls. Marital distress and overt maternal anger expression predicted verbal-reported and overt-motor responses to interadult anger. Family history of EH and sex did not predict these responses. Implications include (a) heightened systolic blood pressure response to stress may be found in sons of EH parents before they are diagnosed to have EH disorders, (b) relations between family history of EH and cardiovascular response may be sex moderated, and (c) vulnerability to stress may be related to specific familial histories and backgrounds.

Parenting in context: systemic thinking about parental conflict and its influence on children.

Fauber and Long's (1991) overview of research on family therapy with children is a valuable integration of the literatures on the family correlates of and treatments for childhood disorders. Several concerns apply to some of the inferences they draw from risk research, however. Their assertion that various sources of family distress have effects that are mediated primarily through parenting is questionable, as is their suggestion that parenting therefore is the appropriate focus of family treatment. The conceptual issues of reductionism, linearity, holism, and change in defining causality are discussed in questioning these conclusions about etiology and treatment. Other empirical and methodological issues are raised briefly, particularly as they relate to statistical models of direct and indirect influences and to the body of correlational and analogue research on how parental conflict influences children.

Young children's views about conflict with peers: a comparison of the daughters and sons of depressed and well women.

Forty five-year-olds were interviewed about conflict with peers, based on a simulated dispute between two glove puppets. Recommendations about tactics to be used in resolving conflicts were affected by the child's gender and experience of being cared for by a depressed mother. In particular, the daughters of depressed women were less likely than other children to recommend aggressive solutions to peer conflict; in contrast, the sons of depressed women were more likely than others to advocate aggression. Girls in general recommended more socialized tactics than boys did.

Effects of background anger, provocation, and methylphenidate on emotional arousal and aggressive responding in attention-deficit hyperactivity disordered boys with and without concurrent aggressiveness.

We investigated the effects of background anger, provocation, and methylphenidate on emotional, physiological, and behavioral responding in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with and without concurrent aggression. Our study revealed that ADHD boys showed more emotional and physiological distress when exposed to an interaction in which an administrator chastised each boy's favorite counselor, compared to a friendly interaction between the two adults. The background anger manipulation did not affect the aggressive behavior of the boys against an opponent in an aggressive game. High-aggressive (HA) ADHD boys were more likely to respond to provocation with aggression than low-aggressive (LA) ADHD boys, but only LA boys showed increased physiological reactivity with increasing provocation. Methylphenidate resulted in increased heart rates under all conditions and did not interact with any of the other findings.

Life-span attachment: relations between attachment and socioemotional functioning in adult women.

Relations between the quality of adult women's attachments, their well-being, and their strategies for coping with stress were explored. In Study 1, we examined elderly women's (65-87 years of age) attachments to their adult children. No main effect differences were found, but extreme score analyses revealed that women with insecure attachments more often evidenced relatively extreme negative scores on measures of social, psychological, and physical well-being and reported using more strategies in coping with stress. In Study 2, we examined the quality of attachments of young adult (mean age = 20 years) and mature women (mean age = 38 years), respectively, to their closest attachment figure. Again, few main effects were found but extreme score analyses revealed that insecurely attached women more often scored in the clinical range on depression and reported more responses in coping with stress. Further friends independently reported more anxiety among insecurely attached women.

Social competence in young children's peer relations: patterns of development and change.

Patterns of developmental change and individual differences in social competence were examined in children of depressed and psychiatrically well mothers, during the toddler-to-late-preschool period. Forty-one children were observed in peer interaction at ages two and five under semi-naturalistic laboratory conditions intended to elicit a range of emotions and social skills. Social competence increased with age, but patterns of developmental change were moderated by maternal diagnosis. Low levels of individual stability were identified in children's social competence.

Response to adults' angry behavior in children of alcoholic and nonalcoholic parents.

Children from alcoholic (COAs) and nonalcoholic (NCOAs) homes (N = 35; M age = 8.02 years) were presented with videotaped segments of angry and friendly interactions matched for mode of expression of affect (verbal, indirect, nonverbal, destructive or constructive, and aggressive or affectionate) and were interviewed following each segment. Children perceived all forms of expression of anger as more negative and expressed more anger and distress in response to them. Angry adults also were perceived as having more negative feelings toward children than friendly adults. Whereas male NCOAs responded with more anger than female NCOAs, male COAs responded with less anger than female COAs. COAs more often proposed solutions to adults' interactions than NCOAs; this primarily reflected a higher rate of indirect responses intended to make others feel better. Finally, COA status and problem behaviors were associated, but analyses indicated that higher incidences of marital discord in the homes of COAs accounted for this relation.

Children's responses to different forms of expression of anger between adults.

Anger is not a homogeneous stimulus, but can vary on a variety of dimensions and domains. This study examined children's responses to anger as a function of: (a) the mode of expression of anger (nonverbal, verbal, verbal-physical), and (b) whether or not anger between others was resolved. Children were presented with videotaped segments of angry and friendly interactions and asked questions concerning their responses. All angry interactions, including non-verbal anger, were perceived as negative events and elicited negative emotions. Unresolved anger was perceived as a far more negative event than resolved anger and induced greater feelings of anger and distress in children. Verbal-physical anger was perceived as the most negative form of expression of anger. Boys reported more angry feelings in response to anger than girls. Distress responding was greater in children from homes in which there was interparent physical aggression and in children with behavior problems. Finally, the utility of this methodology is supported by relatively high test-retest reliability and limited evidence of context effects.

Children's responses to angry adult behavior as a function of marital distress and history of interparent hostility.

Responses of 2-5-year-old children to angry adult behavior were examined as a function of parental report of marital distress, history of interparent verbal hostility, and history of interparent physical hostility. A trained actor engaged the child's mother in an emotionally expressive verbal exchange while the child played in the same room. The exchange was standardized and consisted of a 7-episode sequence of shifting background conditions (no emotion, friendly, no emotion, angry, no emotion, reconciliation, no emotion). Preoccupation with anger, expressed concern and support-seeking, and accepting of social responsibility (e.g., providing physical or verbal comfort to the mother) were greater in response to background anger than in response to prosocial conditions. The parents' marital adjustment was positively associated with expressed concern and support-seeking by children in response to anger. Form and degree of marital conflict interacted with age and sex in predicting children's response to anger as well. In particular, children whose parents engaged in physical aggressiveness showed increased preoccupation, concern and support-seeking, and social responsibility responses with increasing age. Implications of these findings for the study of the effects of marital discord on children are discussed.