Patterns of Observed Family Functioning and Young Children’s Social-Emotional Development

• In Event: Understanding Family Functioning From a Family Systems Perspective: Implications for Research and Practice

Abstract

Introduction: Families consist of interconnected subsystems (Cox & Paley, 2003). Functioning of the subsystems, including the marital subsystem (van Eldik et al., 2020), the coparenting subsystem (Teubert & Pinquart, 2010), and the parent-child subsystem (Cooke et al., 2019), all affect children’s social-emotional development. However, most studies investigate the functioning of family subsystems separately, despite the notion that families, as integrated wholes, are more than the sum of their parts (Minuchin, 1985). Thus, the current study adopted a systemic perspective and a family-centered approach to explore heterogeneity in family functioning among dual-earner families with infant children and examined links between family functioning patterns and children’s subsequent social-emotional development in toddlerhood.
Method: Data were drawn from a larger longitudinal study of the transition to parenthood among U.S. dual-earner couples (n = 160 families; 47.5% had a girl; 87.5% married; 85.5% White; 70.9% had at least a bachelor’s degree, MeanIncome = $81,192 (SD = $42,297)). At 9-months postpartum, mothers and fathers each participated in separate 5-min observational assessments to capture parenting quality, a joint 10-min observational assessment with their infant to capture coparenting quality, and a joint 10-min observational assessment to capture marital quality. Each observational assessment was coded by separate teams of coders using well-established coding schemes (Cowan & Cowan, 1996; Cox & Crnic, 2002; Malik & Lindahl et al., 2004). Coding data were reduced for analyses within each subsystem by combining highly correlated scales. When children were 2.5 years old, mothers reported children’s internalizing behaviors, externalizing behaviors, dysregulation, and competence using the ITSEA (Carter et al., 2003). Latent profile analysis was employed to analyze the data.
Results: We identified four profiles of family functioning (see Figure 1): Profile 1: Weak functioning across subsystems (18.75%); Profile 2: Moderate coparenting and marital functioning (31.88%); Profile 3: Strong coparenting and weak marital functioning (8.13%); Profile 4: Strong functioning across subsystems (41.25%). Children in the weak functioning across subsystems profile had higher levels of dysregulation than children in the strong functioning across subsystems profile (Diffmean = 0.147, p = .011). Children in the moderate coparenting and marital functioning profile had higher levels of externalizing behaviors (Diffmean = 0.148, p = .030) and higher levels of dysregulation (Diffmean = 0.252, p < .001) than children in the strong functioning across subsystems profile.
Discussion: The current study revealed heterogeneity in family functioning in dual-earner families with infant children. In our relatively advantaged sample of dual-earner families, the most well-adjusted children were those with parents with strong coparenting relationships, whereas differences in mothers’ and fathers’ parenting quality appeared less striking and impactful. Children in families that function well across all subsystems are more likely to experience positive social-emotional development. However, families who function well in one subsystem may not necessarily have strong functioning in other subsystems, and poorer functioning in some subsystems may have a negative impact on children’s development despite other well-functioning subsystems. The current findings stress the importance of gathering information from multiple family subsystems and taking a systemic perspective in studying families and child development.

Authors

• Jingyi Wang, Ohio State University
  Presenting Author

• Sarah Jane Schoppe-Sullivan, Ohio State University