Poster #149 - Parental Sensitivity as a Mediator of Interparental Conflict Strategies and Children’s Attachment Security

• In Event: 2-163 - Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Previous research underscores the significance of interparental conflict on children’s social-emotional development. Verbal and physical aggression (destructive conflict) have been associated with internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and decreased attachment security (Posada & Pratt, 2008). Yet parents vary in their approaches to conflict, with some using more constructive strategies (i.e., cooperation and resolution). Despite evidence indicating that the way parents handle conflict plays a role in children’s responses (Davies & Cummings, 1994), little is known about how conflict strategies relate to child-parent attachment relationships. Further, studies examining relations between conflict and children’s development have focused on school-age children and adolescents, although early childhood is a time of increased interparental conflict (Mitnick et al., 2009). Further, while parental sensitivity is a key predictor of children’s attachment security, these relationships exist within family systems comprised of several subsystems (e.g., interparental relationship). Examining how conflict strategies influence attachment security reveals mechanisms explaining interrelations between subsystems. Importantly, conflict may disrupt parental sensitivity (Margolin et al., 2004), suggesting that sensitivity may partially mediate the associations between conflict and child outcomes. We examine associations between interparental conflict strategies, parental sensitivity, and children’s attachment security in mother-child and father-child dyads during toddlerhood.
A middle-class, nonclinical, sample of 66 triads (mother, father, child) participated. Children (50% female) were on average 29.21 months. Mothers were on average 31.59 years, while fathers were 33.22 years. Parents reported on their conflict strategies using the Conflicts and Problem-Solving Scales (Kerig, 1996). Parental sensitivity and children's attachment security were observed by independent observers across four visits: one home and one park visit each with mother and father. Sensitivity was measured using the Caregiving Behavior for Preschoolers Q-Set (Posada et al., 1998). Security was measured using the Attachment Q-Set (Waters, 1995). Composite sensitivity and security scores were computed by averaging park and home visit descriptions for each individual and correlating the description to the criterion sort for the ideally sensitive parent or secure child, respectively. See Table 1 for descriptives and correlations among key variables.
Main analyses employed two separate simultaneous equation models to examine associations between conflict, sensitivity, and security, for each parent (see figure 1). Maternal use of constructive and destructive conflict strategies was unrelated to either maternal sensitivity or security with mother. However, maternal sensitivity was a significant predictor of security with mother. Fathers’ constructive conflict strategies were unrelated to either paternal sensitivity or security with father. However, although destructive conflict strategies were not directly related to security with father, they were negatively related to paternal sensitivity and paternal sensitivity was positively related to security with father. Thus, results revealed a significant indirect pathway from paternal destructive conflict strategies to security with father through paternal sensitivity, (β = .15, p = .06). Findings suggest that while fathers’ sensitivity helps explain how paternal conflict strategies begin to influence attachment security in early life, this is not true for mothers. The need to examine multiple family relationships in context to best understand the quality of parental caregiving and children’s attachment security will be discussed.

Authors

• Laura Anaya, Gonzaga University
  Presenting Author

• German Posada, Purdue University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jill M Trumbell, University of New Hampshire
  Non-Presenting Author