Sensitization in situ: Identifying interindividual differences in adolescentsʼ intraindividual responsiveness to daily interparental conflict

• Published date: 01 April 2022
• Author: Carlie J. Sloan,Gregory M. Fosco,Nilam Ram
• Date: 01 April 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12604

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Sensitization in situ: Identifying interindividual

differences in adolescentsʼintraindividual

responsiveness to daily interparental conflict

Carlie J. Sloan

1,2

|Gregory M. Fosco

1,2

|Nilam Ram

3

1

Human Development and Family Studies,

The Pennsylvania State University, University

Park, Pennsylvania, USA

2

Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research

Center, The Pennsylvania State University,

University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

3

Communication, Psychology, Stanford

University, Stanford, California, USA

Correspondence

Gregory M. Fosco, Human Development and

Family Studies, 306 Biobehavioral Health

Building, The Pennsylvania State University,

University Park, PA 16802-1503, USA.

Email: gmf19@psu.edu

Funding information

Data collection was supported by the Karl

R. and Diane Wendle Fink Early Career

Professorship for the Study of Families and the

Penn State Social Sciences Research Institute

(Fosco) as well as the National Center for

Advancing Translational Sciences (Sloan; TL1

TR002016, PI: G. Thomas and UL1

TR002014; PIs: L. I. Sinoway & J. B.

McCormick). The content is solely the

responsibility of the authors and does not

necessarily represent the official views of the

funding agencies.

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to provide a novel evaluation

of adolescent sensitization to interparental conflict (IPC),

which is thought to be a critical factor in understanding

multifinality in risk outcomes.

Background: Adolescentsʼthreat and self-blame appraisals of

IPC are mechanisms of risk for subsequent maladjustment.

Youth who are exposed to high levels of frequent, intense, and

unresolved interparental conflict are thought to become more

reactive to future conflicts, a process labeled sensitization.We

hypothesized that adolescents with more extensive histories of

IPC would exhibit sensitization operationalized as greater intra-

individual responsiveness to daily IPC. Sensitization may explain

why some youth are more adversely affected by IPC than others.

Method: A 21-day daily diary study was conducted

with 150 adolescents (61.3% girls) in 9th and 10th grade

(M

age

=14.61) who resided in two-caregiver families.

Adolescents provided global and daily reports of IPC and

threat and self-blame appraisals.

Results: Results from multilevel models support a sensiti-

zation hypothesis for threat appraisals: Adolescents with

greater histories of IPC exhibited stronger tendencies to

appraise daily IPC as threatening. No support for sensiti-

zation was found for self-blaming attributions.

Conclusion: Findings suggest a specific underlying process

to sensitization in which accumulated exposure to IPC

may lead adolescents to perceive subsequent conflicts as

more threatening to them or the well-being of the family.

Implications: Sensitization to IPC may involve the interac-

tion of multiple timescales, including daily instances of

Abbreviations: CPIC, children’s perceptions of interparental conflict; FLOW, family life optimizing well-being; IPC, interparental

conflict.

Received: 11 December 2020Revised: 2 June 2021Accepted: 6 July 2021

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12604

© 2021 National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2022;71:583–601.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 583

conflict. Understanding historical exposure to IPC may

guide interventionistsʼefforts when working with adoles-

cents coping with IPC.

KEYWORDS

family theories, conflict, adolescents

INTRODUCTION

Exposure to interparental conflict (IPC) increases risk for youth maladjustment (Cummings &

Davies, 2010; Grych & Fincham, 1990; Rhoades, 2008). Theoretical propositions of the Cogni-

tive Contextual Framework (Grych & Fincham, 1990) suggest that childrenʼs appraisals of

IPC—specifically, threat appraisals and self-blame appraisals—are the key mechanisms through

which exposure to IPC influences subsequent maladjustment (Fosco & Bray, 2016; Fosco &

Feinberg, 2015; Gerard et al., 2006; Grych et al., 2003; Siffert & Schwarz, 2011). Threat

appraisals reflect the degree to which children worry about the implications of interparental

conflicts, including fears that they will become involved in the conflict or that the conflict will

escalate and lead to dissolution of the marriage or family (Atkinson et al., 2009; Fosco

et al., 2007; Grych & Fincham, 1990). Self-blame appraisals reflect the degree to which children

believe they are the cause of parental disagreements or are responsible for resolving them

(Fosco et al., 2007; Grych & Fincham, 1990). Empirical tests of the theory confirm that IPC is

associated with increases in threat and self-blame; in turn, higher threat and self-blame

appraisals are associated with higher internalizing and externalizing problems (Davies

et al., 2002; Fosco & Feinberg, 2015; Fosco & Grych, 2008; Gerard et al., 2006; Grych

et al., 2000, 2003). Elevated threat and self-blame appraisals also appear to increase risk for

maladaptive dating behaviors and peer relationships (Kim et al., 2009; Weymouth et al., 2019),

physiological dysregulation (Lucas-Thompson et al., 2017), substance misuse (Fosco &

Feinberg, 2018), and poor academic achievement (Fosco & Bray, 2016). In this study, we test

the hypothesis that children with greater historical or chronic exposure to IPC become sensi-

tized to future instances of IPC, such that they are more prone to appraise daily episodes of con-

flict as threatening or to blame themselves for the conflict.

The sensitization hypothesis

Sensitization is a developmental process wherein exposure to destructive conflict earlier in life

may lead children to become more reactive to conflicts over time (Cummings & Davies, 2002;

Davies & Cummings, 1994). According to the sensitization hypothesis, children, rather than

habituating to IPC, become sensitized to IPC and have increasingly negative responses during

future instances of conflict (David & Murphy, 2004; Davies et al., 1999, 2006; Goeke-Morey

et al., 2013; Grych, 1998). Thus, individual differences in responsiveness—the magnitude of chi-

ldrenʼs responses to daily IPC, such as how threatening they perceive specific IPC events to

be—may be explained by individualsʼpast exposure to IPC. A conceptual depiction of this phe-

nomenon, using threat appraisals of conflict as an example, can be found in Figure 1. As

shown, interindividual differences in exposure to past IPC would explain differences in

adolescentsʼintraindividual threat response to daily IPC.

Empirical findings provide preliminary support for the sensitization hypothesis. Compared

to children with lower levels of previous exposure, children who report more prior exposure to

interparental conflict perceive simulated conflict vignettes as more threatening (Grych, 1998),

have higher negative emotional reactivity (David & Murphy, 2004; Davies et al., 1999, 2006),

584 FAMILY RELATIONS