Poster #29 - Child Temperament as a Moderator of the Longitudinal Association Between Coparenting Behavior and Child Adjustment

• In Event: Poster Session 20

Abstract

Coparenting, the way that two or more parents coordinate their shared role of raising a child together, has significant implications for child psychological adjustment, both concurrently and prospectively (Talbot & McHale, 2004). For example, research suggests that coparenting conflict and diminished coordination have been linked with child externalizing behaviors; and unsupportive coparenting has been linked with child school adjustment issues (Parkes et al., 2019; Dopkins-Stright & Neitzel, 2003). However, despite the documented links between coparenting behavior and subsequent child adjustment, variability remains in this pathway. To explore sources of variability in this association, the current study explored child temperament factors as moderators of this prospective pathway between coparenting behavior and subsequent child adjustment.
Child temperament, defined as constitutionally based individual differences in emotional reactivity to different stimuli and conditions (Rothbart & Bates, 2006; Thomas & Chess, 1977), may act as a moderator of the relationship between coparenting dynamics and child behavior, and specifically, individual dimensions of child temperament may act as either buffers or risk factors in this association. For example, a child who is high in difficult temperament traits (e.g., fearful distress) may place an additional strain on already conflictual coparenting relationships, resulting in less positive child outcomes over time (i.e., a differential susceptibility hypothesis), while a child’s easy-going temperament traits (e.g., positive affect) may actually act as a buffer for coparenting difficulties, and promote more positive adjustment in the child long term. It is also possible that individual child temperament dimensions may interact with individual coparenting dimensions to differentially predict child adjustment. Accordingly, in the current study, we examined the role of specific child temperament dimensions (i.e., surgency, fearful distress) as moderators of the association between coparenting characteristics and child adjustment outcomes.
Participants included 243 racially- and economically-diverse families (mother, mother’s partner, and child; 48% black; 69% receiving public assistance). Families visited the laboratory during two annual measurement occasions. At Wave 1, 4-year-old children participated in tasks from the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery (Lab-TAB; Goldsmith et al., 1999), and coders provided observational ratings of children’s temperament dimensions. At Wave 1, coparenting behavior was assessed through observational ratings of a family interaction task (adapted from Westerman & Schonholtz, 1993). At Waves 1 and 2, children’s teachers reported on the child’s levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviors (HBQ; Essex et al., 2002).
Analyses revealed that child positive affect acted as a significant predictor of their future internalizing and externalizing behavior problems; child positive affect acted as moderator in the association between coparenting collusion and child externalizing problems, but not in the association between coparenting collusion and child internalizing behaviors; and child fearful distress did not moderate either the pathway between coparenting collusion and child externalizing behaviors, or the pathway between coparenting collusion and child internalizing behaviors. Probing the significant interaction between coparenting collusion and child positive affect as a predictor of child externalizing behaviors revealed a crossover of the two regression lines, suggesting that child positive affect may act as a diathesis in this association.

Authors

• Lucia Q. Parry, Franklin & Marshall College
  Presenting Author

• Patrick Davies, University of Rochester

• Melissa L Sturge-Apple, University of Rochester