Predicting Children’s Reactions to Interparental Conflict: Coder-Rated Conflict Characteristics Versus Children’s Perceptions

• In Event: 2-065 - Influences and Mechanisms of the Influence of Parental Conflict on Children

Integrative Statement

It is well established that interparental conflict (IPC) elicits negative affect and elevated physiological arousal in children (Rhoades, 2008). Children’s appraisals of conflict are also important in determining how children are impacted by conflict (Grych, Harold & Miles, 2003). A recent study found that these appraisals of conflict influenced children’s affective and arousal responses to a live IPC in the laboratory (Weldon, Schermerhorn, & Stickle, 2018). Children with more negative appraisals of IPC (higher ratings of self-blame for conflict, greater triangulation into their parents’ conflicts, or greater frequency, intensity, and lack of conflict resolution) reported higher levels of negative affect and subjective physiological arousal after witnessing a live IPC in the laboratory. A significant drawback to this approach was that each child experienced a different conflict stimulus, as their parents discussed a real topic of disagreement and were encouraged to do so in the way they would normally at home. The current study builds upon this work by using coder ratings of parents’ destructiveness and constructiveness during the conflict to determine whether children’s reactions to conflict were influenced by objective characteristics of the conflict, by children’s IPC appraisals, or by both. Given evidence for the role of appraisals in the relationship between conflict and child outcomes (Davies & Martin, 2013; Grych & Fincham, 1990), we hypothesized that both coder ratings of conflict and children’s appraisals would significantly predict children’s affective and arousal responses.

Participants were 101 children (52 boys, 48 girls, 1 gender-neutral child) ages 9 to 11 years and their biological parents. Children reported their affect and subjective arousal upon arrival to the lab and again after witnessing their parents discuss an interparental problem for ten minutes. Children also completed the Children’s Perceptions of Interparental Conflict questionnaire (CPIC; Grych & Fincham, 1990), measuring their appraisals of IPC (not specific to the lab conflict). Coders subsequently rated the constructiveness and destructiveness of the interparental discussion.

To test if both coder-ratings and children’s appraisals of conflict would significantly predict children’s affective and arousal responses to witnessing live IPC, as hypothesized, child age, gender, and SES (step 1), coder-rated constructiveness and destructiveness (step 2), and children’s perceptions of conflict (step 3) were tested as predictors of children’s affective and arousal responses.

There were no significant effects of coder ratings on children’s affective or arousal responses after witnessing the interparental conflict, indicating that the objectively assessed constructive and destructive qualities of the conflict did not significantly predict children’s immediate responses (see Tables 1 and 2). However, children’s conflict appraisals did predict these responses. Children’s ratings of conflict frequency, intensity, and resolution (referred to as “Conflict Properties”), as well as their self-blame for, and triangulation into, conflict predicted children’s negative affect and arousal following the conflict. Thus, children’s appraisals were better predictors of their responses than the objective characteristics of the conflict. Findings will be discussed in terms of the importance of children’s appraisals for their affective and arousal responses to live IPC and implications for clinical practice.

Authors

• Holly Weldon, University of Vermont
  Presenting Author

• Alice Schermerhorn, University of Vermont
  Non-Presenting Author