Children's perceptions of marital discord and behavior problems of boys and girls

Children's feelings of nonacceptance and their perceptions of their parents' marital discord were related to parental measures of marital satisfaction and behavior problems in the children. In a sample of 50 clinic children, it was found that (1) marital discord, as predicted, was most strongly related to conduct problems in boys, (2) boys and girls perceived parental marital discord with equal and moderate accuracy, and (3) children's feelings of nonacceptance were not significantly related to ratings of marital discord. These findings are discussed as they relate to etiological explanations of the impact of marital discord on children.     

Paternal Postnatal and Subsequent Mental Health Symptoms and Child Socio‐Emotional and Behavioural Problems at School Entry

Research on the effect of paternal mental health problems, particularly on young children, is based predominantly on clinical levels of depression. Furthermore, potential mediators such as marital discord have often been overlooked. This longitudinal community study assessed the association between paternal mental health symptoms in a community sample (N = 705) assessed at 3 months postnatally (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale) and 36 months (General Health Questionnaire) and children's socio‐emotional and behavioural problems at 51 months (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) as reported by mother, father and teacher. Controlling for socioeconomic status and maternal mental health symptoms at 3 and 36 months, paternal postnatal depressive symptoms predicted more father‐reported child problems at 51 months but, in contrast to previous findings, not mother‐reported problems. Paternal mental health symptoms at 36 months predicted both maternal and paternal reports of child problems at 51 months controlling for both paternal and maternal postnatal symptoms. Paternal mental health symptoms at 3 and 36 months were not significant predictors of teacher‐reported child problems. Postnatal marital discord and paternal mental health problems at 36 months both mediated the relationship between paternal postnatal symptoms and later child emotional and behavioural problems. Child gender did not moderate the relationship. Implications for interventions are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of fathers in children's emotion regulation development: A systematic review

This systematic review summarizes the results of 43 studies that explored the potential role of fathers in emotion regulation (ER) development in children. Following a tripartite model, this review investigates the paternal modelling of ER strategies, emotion-related paternal parenting practices, father–child emotional climate, and fathers' characteristics, by identifying 16 specific themes of paternal factors that could play a role in the child's ER development. Results show that while a large number of studies investigated father–child emotional climate and fathers' characteristics and their association with children's ER, the effects of paternal modelling and the father's emotion-related parenting practices on children's ER are still understudied. This review reveals that several factors—fathers' modelling of ER strategies; positive reactions and support in responding to their child's expression of emotions; better quality of the father–child relationship; higher father–child attachment security; and positive parenting in terms of sensitivity, engagement, and expressiveness—had significant associations with children's higher ER skills. Conversely, fathers' psychopathology and harsh parenting were associated with poorer ER skills in children.

Highlights

• This study summarized existing literature that explored the association between paternal factors and ER in children.
• The review showed some evidence supporting the paternal role in children's ER development.
• Fathers' role in the development of child's ER is most prominent in infancy and toddlerhood.
• Most paternal factors significantly associated with a child's ER reflected previous findings examining maternal factors.

     

Synchrony in the Triad: A Microlevel Process Model of Coparenting and Parent‐Child Interactions

Guided by a microanalytic approach to the study of relationships, we assessed parent, infant, and coparental behaviors during triadic interactions in 94 parents and their 5‐month‐old firstborn child. Relational behaviors in each family subsystem—mother‐infant, father‐infant, and coparenting—were microcoded. Marital satisfaction and infant temperament were self‐reported. No differences were found in the infants' behavior toward mother and father or in the time spent with each parent. Mothers' and fathers' relational behavior during parent‐infant episodes were generally comparable, yet mothers vocalized more and the latency to father's displaying positive affect was longer. Conditional probabilities indicated that under conditions of coparental mutuality, fathers showed more positive behaviors than mothers. Lag‐sequential analysis demonstrated that change in the infant's social focus between parents followed change in coparental behavior. Fathers' coparental mutuality was independently predicted by maternal behavior during mother‐child episodes, father marital satisfaction, and infant difficult temperament, whereas mothers' coparental mutuality was only linked with fathers' relational behavior. Results highlight the importance of including a microlevel perspective on the family system at the first stages of family development.     

Parental capacities for triadic relationships during pregnancy: Early predictors of children's behavioral and representational functioning at preschool age

This study examines associations between parental capacities for triadic (mother–father–child) relationships, assessed prenatally, and the representational and behavioral functioning of their offspring at preschool age. Thirty‐eight parental couples were given an intensive psychodynamic interview during their first pregnancy to assess how they anticipated their future parenthood and their relationships as threesomes (mother–father–child). The capacity for triadic relationships (“triadic capacity”) was defined as the capacity of fathers and mothers to anticipate their family relationships without excluding either themselves or their partners from the relationship with the infant. Four years later, the representational and behavioral functioning of their children were assessed in depth using child narrative interviews and parental behavior ratings. The coherence of the children's narratives and the number of positive themes they expressed were significantly negatively correlated with the number of behavioral problems. In the longitudinal analyses, there were significant positive correlations between the parental triadic capacities and the coherence/number of positive themes in the children's narratives whereas parental triadic capacities showed a significant negative correlation with the number of the children's externalizing problems. The significance of triadic relational family processes for the development of children's representational world and behavioral functioning is discussed. ©2005 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Marital disturbance and child problems: A cautionary note regarding hyperactive children

In previous work, investigators have found a relationship between marital discord and childhood conduct problems (aggression) in clinic samples. Given the wide variability of aggression found among hyperactive children,it would follow from previous work that child aggression may be associated with marital discord in a hyperactive population. This hypothesis was tested in a sample of 23 boys (ages 5 to 8) diagnosed as attention deficit with hyperactivity. Aggressive behaviors were tracked by the children's teachers for 12 school days. Parental and teacher ratings of conduct problems were also obtained. Additionally, the auditory version of the laboratory Continuous Performance Test was administered. Marital adjustment, overt hostility, and conflict tactics, as reported by the mothers, were not significantly correlated with any of the measures of aggression or conduct problems. In other words, marital discord in families with a hyperactive boy did not explain differential rates of aggressive behavior despite definite variability in both the marital and child behavioral measures. Marital discord was marginally related to severity of attentional deficit on the Continuous Performance Test. The results underscore the need for caution in attempting to extend findings from a general population (i.e., undifferentiated clinicreferred children) to a specific diagnostic subgroup (i.e., attention-deficit hyperactive children).     

Treatment Acceptability

The present study assessed mothers' and fathers' acceptance of six interventions frequently used to alter children's problem behavior. This is the first study to assess fathers' perceptions of behavioral interventions for children. Positive reinforcement, response cost, medication, room timeout, chair timeout and spanking were rated by parents using the Treatment Evaluation Inventory (TEI). In addition, parents' perceptions of their children's behavior and own marital adjustment were measured using standardized checklists. Parents' acceptability ratings differed significantly across treatment conditions depending on parent gender, child behavior problems, and marital adjustment. Treatment preference order was equivalent for all groups.     

Parental characteristics and interactional dysfunction in families with child behavior problems: A preliminary investigation

Thirty-six families with a preteenage behavior problem child were assessed on measures of marital discord, parental psychopathology, and three parental cognitive factors: knowledge of behavioral principles, tolerance for child deviancy, and expectations regarding their child's behavior. Nine nonproblem families with demographic characteristics similar to the problem families were also assessed. Correlational analyses across all families revealed a strong association between marital discord and the parental index of child behavior problems. While a number of significant associations were discovered between the various measures of marital discord, parental psychopathology, and parental cognitive factors, no other measure besides marital discord was associated with parental perception of child behavior problems. The nonproblem families and 15 of the problem families also participated in home observations obtained through random audio recordings during high interaction periods. These observational data indicated a significant relationship between parental perception of child behavior problems and parental negative behavior toward the child, but no significant relationship between parental perception of child behavior problems and child behavior, even when child behavior was weighted by parents' reactions to that behavior. Through sequential analysis, several contingent relations between parent and child behavior were discovered. Findings are discussed in relation to family systems theory.     

Parents' convergence on sharing and marital satisfaction,father involvement,and parent–child relationship at the transition to parenthood

This study examines determinants of father involvement, the parents' convergence on marital satisfaction, and mothers' and fathers' interactive behavior in dual‐earner families at the transition to parenthood. Sixty dual‐earner Israeli couples and their five‐month‐old firstborn child were interviewed and videotaped in infant–mother and infant–father interactions. Interactions were coded globally for 21 interactive behaviors and composited into measures of parent sensitivity and infant readiness to interact. Five determinants of each parent's involvement in house and childcare were assessed as predictors of parent–infant interactions: the sharing of household and childcare responsibilities, the amount of time each parent spends with the infant during the week and on weekends, and the range of childcare activities the parent typically performs. Marital convergence was indexed by the absolute difference score between mothers' and fathers' marital satisfaction. Father sensitivity was related to the sharing of household and childcare responsibilities, to the amount of time the father spends with the child on weekends (but not during the week), to the range of childcare activities father performs, and to marital convergence. Mother sensitivity was related only to the sharing of responsibilities between spouses. The range of the father's childcare activities predicted maternal interactive sensitivity. Infant readiness to interact with the father, but not with the mother, was related to the sharing of childcare responsibilities, to the range of father's childcare activities, and to marital convergence. Results further specify the differential associations between the marital and the parent–child relationship for mothers and fathers and point to the importance of the father's instrumental involvement in childcare to the development of fathering. © 2000 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Associations Between 3-Year-Olds' Narrative Co-Constructions with Mothers and Fathers and Their Story Completions About Affective Themes

Oral narratives are important developmental attainments for young children, and they provide them with a new mode for organizing personal experience. Narratives are not only individual constructions, however; they are also shaped and transformed b y parent–child transactions. In this study the relations between mother– and father–child co-constructions of a narrative involving emotional themes and the emotional organization of children's narratives obtained using the MacArthur Sto ry-Stem Battery (MSSB) were investigated. The results showed associations between both mother– and father–child co-constructions and children's MSSB narratives. In addition, the findings highlighted the dyadic aspects of co-constructions and t he importance of taking into consideration children's co-constructions with both parents.     

Children's Moral Emotions,Narratives, and Aggression: Relations With Maternal Discipline and Support

ABSTRACT. Children who attribute more positive emotions to hypothetical moral victimizers are typically more aggressive and have more behavior problems. Little is known, however, about when individual differences in these moral emotion attributions first emerge or about maternal correlates of these differences. In this study, 63 4–6-year-olds judged how they would feel after victimizing peers for gain and enacted event conclusions using narrative methods adapted from the MacArthur Story Stem Battery. In addition, children's mothers completed assessments of their disciplinary styles and social support, and children's aggressive tendencies were assessed based on ratings from mothers and a second familiar adult. Results revealed that most preschoolers expected to feel happy after their victimizing acts, but variations in happy victimization were unrelated to children's aggression. Several of children's narrative themes, including making amends (e.g., apologizing, reparations), aggressive acts, and mentions of death/killing, however, were related to children's aggression. Moreover, two maternal disciplinary dimensions, higher warmth and reasoning, as well as greater social support were also related to lower child aggression. Children's emotion attributions and moral narratives, however, were unrelated to maternal disciplinary practices or social support.     

Families with Distinct Levels of Marital Conflict and Child Adjustment: Which Role for Maternal and Paternal Stress?

This study addresses the links between distinct levels of marital conflict and mothers’ and fathers’ parenting stress and their associations with children’s adjustment. Using a sample of 358 Italian father–mother dyads with school–aged children, we computed a cluster analysis to identify distinct groups of families with different levels of interparental conflict. In each of the three groups identified (low, moderate, and high marital conflict), we conducted correlational and mediational analyses to explore the relationship between interparental conflict and children’s adjustment, the relationship between interparental conflict and maternal and paternal stress, and the potential mediating role of these components of maternal and paternal stress in the association between interparental conflict and children’s adjustment. We administered the R-CTS, PSI-SF, and CBCL to parents in order to assess marital conflict, maternal and paternal stress, and children’s behavioral problems; children completed the CPIC in order to evaluate their perceptions of interparental conflict. Results show that, in the high marital conflict group, levels of interparental conflict negatively affect children’s adjustment; moreover, the parent–child dysfunctional interaction component of maternal stress partially mediates the relationship between interparental discord and children’s internalizing behaviors, while the difficult child component of paternal stress fully mediates the effects of marital conflict on externalizing behaviors. In the moderate marital conflict group, levels of interparental conflict are correlated with the difficult child component of both maternal and paternal stress, while in the low marital conflict group, interparental conflict does not correlate with both maternal and paternal stress and children’s adjustment.     

Pathways from marital aggression to infant emotion regulation: the development of withdrawal in infancy

Associations between marital conflict and infant emotion regulation exist, but explanatory pathways have not been explored. For older children, parental behavior partially mediates this association through a "spillover" process. We test: associations between mothers' and fathers' verbally aggressive marital conflict, infant temperament, and infant withdrawal; mediating effects of negative maternal behavior, and moderating effects of infant temperament, exposure to marital arguments, and contact with father. Eighty mothers, 73 fathers, and their 6-month-old infants participated; parents reported marital aggression prenatally, mothers reported infant exposure to arguments, direct caregiving by father, and infant temperament at 5 months. Negative maternal behavior, infant withdrawal, distress to novelty, activity, and look away were observed at 6 months. Mothers' and fathers' aggressive marital conflict predicted infant withdrawal, interactively with exposure to marital arguments and extent of father caregiving, as did infant temperament and negative maternal behavior. Maternal behavior did not mediate between marital conflict and withdrawal.     

Children's behavioural reactions to marital conflict as a function of parents' conflict behaviours and alcohol problems

This paper examines how children's previous exposure to destructive marital conflict and parental problem drinking relate to children's immediate and specific behavioural reactions to marital conflict. Data are from 215 second-graders and their families participating in a larger study. Children watched analogues of marital conflict and indicated their behavioural response. Parents completed questionnaire measures of marital conflict and drinking problems. Children's exposure to marital stonewalling was associated with increased child intervention in conflict and decreased avoidance of conflict. Exposure to maternal drinking was related to child caretaking responses to escalated conflict. Exposure to paternal drinking was related to child mediation and avoidance of child-related conflict, but inactive response to escalated conflict. Boys were more likely to mediate and less likely to avoid escalated conflict.     

Marital Maladjustment and the Crime of Murder Among Pakistani Female Criminals

This study explores marital maladjustment as concomittantly related to female crimes such as murder and running away from home. Seventy female convicts were interviewed in depth on variables indicating marital maladjustment. The variables were: Sharp disparity between the ages of husbands and wives, early marriage, husband's other wife, exchange marriage, forced marriage, problems with in-laws, husband's extra-marital relations and severe conflicts with husbands. The findings indicate that marital maladjustment is an important factor behind criminal acts commited by women in Pakistan. The two most frequent of these are murder and running away from home. Results have been discussed in terms of the peculiar cultural conditions existing in Pakistan. The implications of social reform are suggested and the need for adopting a helpful attitude towards women before and after their criminal acts is stressed.     

Black Children's Adaptive Functioning and Maladaptive Behavior Associated With Quality of Family Support

The authors investigated differences in low-income Black children's adaptive functioning and maladaptive behavior in association with their father-figures' presence or absence, grade level, gender, and quality of family support as perceived by the children's caregivers.     

Emotional arousal and negative affect in marital conflict: the influence of gender,conflict structure,and demand‐withdrawal

This report covers two studies that examined how spouses' emotional arousal and negative affect in response to marital conflict are shaped by gender, conflict structure, and demand‐withdraw communication. In Study 1, 86 couples participated in a video analogue presentation procedure, and in Study 2, 32 couples participated in an observational methodology. In both studies, spouses' evaluative reports of their emotional arousal and negative affect were collected within two experimental conditions in which either the husband's or the wife's issue was discussed. In both studies, husbands—but not wives—reported lower levels of post‐interaction arousal and negative affect in the wife's issue condition than in the husband's issue condition. In both studies, husbands' as well as wives' level of emotional arousal was positively associated with their level of negative affect. In Study 2, husbands who were less demanding and more withdrawing during marital conflict were less aroused after the discussion. In contrast, wives reported more emotional arousal and negative affect as they were more withdrawing and less demanding, respectively. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Affiliative and Instrumental Marital Discord, Mother's Negative Affect, and Children's Negative Interactions with Unfamiliar Peers

Indices of marital discord and mother-child affective processes were used to predict levels of negativity children displayed with unfamiliar peers. Thirty-nine mothers and their 5-year-olds were observed with 5–7 other mother-child dyads during a 30-minute free play session. Mother and child negativity were coded and two types of marital discord were assessed via mother self-report: affiliative discord (e.g., distress due to the lack of affiliative behaviors in the marriage) and instrumental discord (e.g., disagreements about the accomplishment of marital tasks, such as finances, time management, and goal setting). Affiliative discord was found to relate to the child's negativity with unfamiliar peers, but instrumental discord was not. Furthermore, maternal negativity moderated the link between marital discord and child's negativity with peers, such that high levels of affiliative discord combined with heightened maternal negativity was associated with child negativity. Practical implications are discussed.     

父母元情绪理念与儿童社会适应：父母情绪反应的中介作用

采用追踪设计对459名儿童的父母进行问卷调查，旨在考察父母元情绪、情绪反应与儿童社会适应的复杂作用关系。研究结果表明：（1）在控制了前测儿童敏感合作后，父亲的问题关注反应在父亲的情绪教导和儿童的敏感合作之间起中介作用；（2）在控制了前测儿童社会适应后，母亲的鼓励表达在母亲的情绪教导和儿童的违纪攻击、害羞焦虑之间起中介作用，母亲的问题关注反应在母亲的情绪教导和儿童的敏感合作之间起中介作用，母亲的苦恼反应在母亲的情绪教导、情绪摒除和儿童的敏感合作、害羞焦虑之间起中介作用。     

Gender Comparisons in the Perception of Self-Competence Among Four-Year-Old Children

The purpose of this study was to determine the presence of gender differences in the perception of self-competence among 4-year-old children. Sixty-one 4-year-olds (27 girls and 34 boys) from predominantly European American backgrounds participated in the study. The children's self-competence was measured using the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children (Preschool version; S. Harter & R. Pike, 1984), which has 4 separate subscales: (a) cognitive competence, (b) physical competence, (c) peer acceptance, and (d) maternal acceptance. A within-subject 2-way analysis of variance with repeated measures of 4 (subscales of perception of self-competence) × 2 (gender) was performed to determine if gender differences existed in the children's perception of self-competence. Analyses of the data showed no significant gender differences in the scores on the 4 subscales for the perception of self-competence among the children. These results could be interpreted as being due to a less gender-stereotyped society and androgynous environment for these preschoolers.