Poster #96 - Longitudinal Links among Marital Conflict, Coparenting, Young Children's Emotional Control, and Their Socioemotional Outcomes

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

Scholars have been interested in identifying mechanisms that account for the relations between marital conflict and young children’s socioemotional outcomes. Most of researchers, however, have focused more on parenting as the mediator of these relations (e.g., Buehler & Gerard, 2002). Little is known about how mothers’ and fathers’ coparenting behaviors may play intervening mechanisms that explain the longitudinal links between marital conflict and young children’s adjustment. Furthermore, children’s ability to control their emotions has been suggested as the precursor of diverse socioemotional adjustment (Kim et al., 2011). Thus, children’s emotional control may mediate the associations between marital conflict and their socioemotional functioning. The present study examined the longitudinal relationships among marital conflict, coparenting, young children’s emotional control, and their socioemotional adjustment (i.e., internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and positive peer functioning at school) in South Korea. This study analyzed 1,780 South Korean young children (51% boys; 49% girls) and their parents, which was derived from the Panel Study on Korean Children. The current research used wave 5 (Time 1), wave 7 (Time 2), and wave 8 (Time 3) when children were age 4, 6, and 7, respectively. Mothers and fathers reported on their marital conflict (Markman, Stanley, & Blumberg, 1994) and positive coparenting (Mchale, 1997). Mothers reported on their children’s emotional control difficulty (Song, 2014) and internalizing and externalizing problems (Oh & Kim, 2009). Teachers measured young children’s positive peer adjustment at school (Chi & Jung, 2006). Structural equation modeling was conducted to examine the relations among the study variables (Figure 1). Mothers’ and fathers’ education levels were controlled in the analysis. Overall, the present study suggests that mothers’ and fathers’ perceived marital conflict was indirectly associated with young children’s internalizing and externalizing problems and positive peer functioning via mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of their coparenting behaviors and young children’s emotional control difficulty at a later time point. Mothers’ perceived marital conflict at T1 was negatively linked to both mothers' and fathers' perceptions of their positive coparentig at T2. Fathers’ perceived marital conflict at T1 was also negatively related to both mothers' and fathers' perceptions of their positive coparentig at T2. Mothers’ positive coparenting was negatively associated with young children’s emotional control difficulty at Time 3, which in turn predicted young children’s internalizing and externalizing problems as well as positive peer functioning at Time 4. Mothers’ perceived marital conflict at T1 was also positively associated with young children’s emotional control difficulty at T3. Moreover, mothers’ and fathers’ coparenting behaviors were mediators between martial conflict and young children’s emotional control difficulty. Mothers’ perceived marital conflict and mothers’ coparenting were also indirectly related to young children’s socioemotional adjustment via young children’s emotional control difficulty. Theses findings underscore the important role of mothers’ perceptions of their marital and coparental relations. Furthermore, the current research suggests coparenting and young children’s emotional control difficulty as the underlying mechanisms that account for the links between marital conflict and young children’s diverse socioemotional functioning. Implications for practice will be discussed.

Author

• Youngsook Han, University of Missouri
  Presenting Author