Marital Conflict Behaviors and Parenting: Dyadic Links Over Time

• Published date: 01 February 2019
• Author: Patrick T. Davies,Mengyu (Miranda) Gao,E. Mark Cummings,Han Du
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12322
• Date: 01 February 2019

M (M) G University of Notre Dame

H D University of California–Los Angeles

P T. D University of Rochester

E. M C University of Notre Dame

Marital Conict Behaviors and Parenting: Dyadic

Links Over Time

Objective: To assess the effects of marital con-

ict on parenting practices for mothers and

fathers and to examine whether these effects dif-

fer for within-person and cross-person links in

parental dyads.

Background: Existing ndings are mixed

regardingthe nature and magnitude of the asso-

ciation between marital conict and child-

rearing behaviors. Little is known about

parental role differences in this regard between

fathers and mothers and the mutual inuence on

the other’s responding.

Method: A sample of 235 families (fathers,

mothers, and their kindergarten children) par-

ticipated in the study over a 2-year period.

Fathers and mothers independently reported

on constructive and destructive marital conict

tactics, as well as on their parenting behaviors

in scenarios of children experiencing negative

emotions.

Results: Results indicated cross-person and

within-person relations. For example, fathers’

destructive conict predicted mothers’ dis-

tress reactions to children’s negative emotions,

supporting a spillover hypothesis. Mothers’

Department of Psychology,University of Notre Dame, Notre

Dame, IN 46556 (mgao2@nd.edu).

KeyWords: marital conict, parenting,spillover, parent gen-

der,family systems theory.

destructive conict behaviors predicted less

unsupportive maternal parenting, supporting a

compensatory hypothesis.

Conclusion: Fathers’ and mothers’ marital

conict behaviors may have different implica-

tions for their own and their spouses’ parenting.

Implications: Intervention and prevention pro-

grams that target improving marital conict

interactions may also help promote positive

parenting. The ndings also support that both

fathers and mothers should be included in these

programs to increase the benecial effects on

parenting practices.

Marital quality is widely recognized as a

cornerstone of adaptive family functioning;

disturbances in the marital relationship may

negatively inuence parents’ behaviors in

parent–child relationships (Cox, Paley, & Har-

ter, 2001; Erel & Burman, 1995) and affect

children’s socioemotional outcomes. Marital

conict, as an index of aversive marital rela-

tionship behaviors, is consistently related to

negative parenting and children’s adjustment

problems (e.g., Benson, Buehler, & Gerard,

2008; Klausli & Owen, 2011). However, stud-

ies testing the marriage–parenting link have

often been focused on destructive marital con-

ict (e.g., hostility and aggression) and have

neglected constructive conict in which the

Family Relations 68 (February 2019): 135–149 135

DOI:10.1111/fare.12322