Implications of Marital Quality on Children’s Emotional Insecurity in the Context of Interparental Conflict

• In Event: Extended family roles, parenting, and child development

Abstract

Emotional (in)security reflects children’s sense of safety and permanence in the interparental relationship and is a gateway to their developmental outcomes (Davies & Martin, 2014). Exposure to destructive conflict (hostility, contempt) has been related to compromised adjustment in the areas of social, emotional, and psychological development (van Eldik et al., 2020). Children are less vulnerable to developing adjustment problems when parents use adaptive approaches to disagreements (compromise, affection) known as constructive conflict (van Eldik et al., 2020). Considering that family conflict is inevitable and shielding children from it may not be feasible at all times, understanding factors that might mitigate negative effect of conflict on children’s emotional insecurity may help prevent further maladjustment, but this area of research remains largely unexplored (Davies & Martin, 2014). We examined marital quality as a process through which conflict may affect children’s emotional insecurity. We hypothesized that (a) constructive conflict is positively related marital quality and inversely to emotional insecurity, (b) destructive conflict is inversely related to marital quality and positively to emotional insecurity, (c) marital quality is inversely related to emotional insecurity, and (d) marital quality mediate the relation between conflict and child emotional insecurity.
We used data from the Building Strong Families project, the goal of which was to provide relationship-strengthening education to low-income couples who were expectant or new parents. Analyses were based on data (N=1,891 parents) when children were approximately 36 months-old. Mothers/fathers reported on destructive conflict (9 items, “Partner puts down my opinions, feelings, or desires”; Hershey et al., 2008; α = .89/.87), constructive conflict (8 items; “I feel respected even when we disagree; Hershey et al., 2008; α = .90/.87), marital quality (12 items; “Partner shows love and affection for me”; Hershey et al., 2008; α = .95/.94), and child emotional insecurity (12 items; “Seeing argument between you and mothers/father, child appears angry”; Davies et al., 2002; α = .85/.87). Control variables included parents’ age, race/ethnicity, depression, financial difficulties, education, relationship status, and father residential status. Hypotheses were tested using path analysis in Mplus 8.1 (Muthén & Muthén, 1998–2017) and mediation was examined through bias-corrected bootstrap methodology with 5000 iterations (MacKinnon et al., 2004).
Model fit indices and findings are presented in Figure 1. Parents’ constructive conflict related to high marital quality; destructive conflict related to low marital quality. Both parents’ destructive conflict was related to children’s emotional insecurity as direct effects. Mothers’ marital quality fully mediated the relation between their destructive and constructive conflict and children’s emotional insecurity. Despite negative correlations between mothers’ high marital quality and children’s emotional insecurity (see Table 1), in the model, these variables were positively associated. It appears that destructive conflict has a negative impact on children’s emotional insecurity that high marital quality may not mitigate. In light of high marital quality, young children may not yet be able to discern the complexity of parental relationship, which may be the reason they respond with distress to conflict. Interventions should focus on reducing conflict as a specific strategy to improve marital quality.

Authors

• Olena Kopystynska, Southern Utah University
  Presenting Author

• Melissa A. Barnett, University of Arizona
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kay Bradford, Utah State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Brian Higginbotham, Utah State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Melissa Anne Curran, University of Arizona
  Non-Presenting Author