Delineating the Developmental Sequelae of Children’s Risky Involvement in Interparental Conflict

• In Event: Advancing Developmental and Family Models of Risk: Explicating and Integrating Youth Triangulation into Parental Conflict

Abstract

Children’s involvement in interparental conflict (i.e., behavioral efforts to directly mediate or intervene in parental conflicts) has been identified as a unique predictor of internalizing, externalizing, and social problems even when controlling for the effects of other known predictors (e.g., interparental problems, child life stress, socioeconomic status; e.g., Jenkins et al., 1989; Mueller et al., 2015; O’Brien, Bahadur, Gee, Balto, & Erber, 1997; O’Brien, Margolin, & John, 1995). Although research has primarily examined involvement as a unidimensional construct, dissecting distinct forms of children’s involvement may provide greater specificity in predicting children’s developmental sequelae. However, there is a relative paucity of research that has attempted to parse involvement into specific dimensions (Davies, Coe, Martin, Sturge-Apple, & Cummings, 2015; Schermerhorn, Cummings, DeCarlo, & Davies, 2007). Davies and colleagues (2015) provide an initial step of distinguishing between coercive, mediation, and appeasing forms of involvement in interparental conflict; however, this study is limited in that it does not simultaneously examine each form of involvement as predictors of children’s psychological adjustment, and consequently, does not assess their unique contributions. To address this significant gap, the primary goal of this study was to examine the distinct implications of three risky forms of involvement on children’s subsequent psychological functioning.

Participants included 243 children and their mothers from diverse demographic backgrounds who participated in two waves of data collection spaced two years apart. Table 1 outlines the battery of measures used. Utilizing a mixed method design, we employed thematic analysis to identify specific risky forms of involvement based on maternal narratives derived from a semi-structured interview on interparental conflict. As a result of the thematic analysis, we identified three risky forms of involvement (i.e., coercive, caregiving, and cautious). Subsequently, we developed a quantitative coding system for capturing dimensional ratings of each form of risky involvement based on maternal descriptions of frequency, intensity, and patterning of children’s behavioral responses. Children’s psychological adjustment (i.e., externalizing problems, callousness, anxiety, depression, social withdrawal, prosocial behavior, and extraversion) was assessed via maternal questionnaires and interviews, and experimenter completion of the California Child Q-Set.


In seven successive path analysis models, we examined the three forms of risky involvement as simultaneous predictors of children’s adjustment two years later controlling for Wave 1 psychological functioning, children’s gender, children’s frequency of conflict exposure, interparental satisfaction, and maternal education. Results are summarized in Table 2. Wave 1 coercive involvement significantly predicted greater externalizing problems, ß=.12, p=.04, callousness, ß=.14, p=.02, and extraversion, ß=.13, p=.046, at Wave 2, accounting for Wave 1 adjustment and the other control variables. Wave 1 caregiving involvement significantly predicted greater Wave 2 separation anxiety, ß=.17, p=.01, controlling for Wave 1 separation anxiety and the other control variables. Lastly, Wave 1 cautious involvement significantly predicted greater separation anxiety, ß=.15, p=.02, and social withdrawal, ß=.14, p=.02, at Wave 2, accounting for Wave 1 adjustment and the other control variables. Findings will be discussed in their relation to emotional security formulations (Davies & Cummings, 1994; Davies & Martin ) and their implications for refining a formal process-oriented theory.

Authors

• Morgan J Thompson, Auburn University
  Presenting Author

• Patrick Davies, University of Rochester
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rochelle Hentges, University of Calgary (U of C)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Melissa L Sturge-Apple, University of Rochester
  Non-Presenting Author