marital conflict and children's adjustment: parental hostility and children's...

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Marital Conflict and Children’s Adjustment:Parental Hostility and Children’sInterpretations as MediatorsClare M. Stocker, Melissa K. Richmond, Sabina M. Low, Elise K. Alexander and Nadine M. Elias, University of Denver

Abstract

The associations between marital conflict, maternal and paternal hostility, children’sinterpretations of marital conflict, and children’s adjustment were examined in asample of 136 school-aged children and their parents. Observational measures werecollected from videotapes of marital interaction and family interaction. Self-reportdata were collected from parents and children. Results showed that mothers’ andfathers’ hostility mediated the association between martial conflict and children’sinternalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Children’s feelings of being toblame for marital conflict and being threatened by it mediated between marital con-flict and children’s internalizing problems but not their externalizing problems.

Keywords: marital relationships; parent–child relationships; children’s adjustment;children’s cognitive appraisals

The associations between marital conflict and children’s adjustment problems havebeen well documented (see Davies & Cummings, 1994; Fincham, Grych & Osborne,1994; Grych & Fincham, 1993; and Reid & Crisafulli, 1990 for reviews). Researchersare now turning their attention to the processes that connect the marital relationshipto children’s mental-health outcomes. Information about these processes is of crucialimportance for families, clinicians, and researchers alike. The aim of the current studywas to examine the roles of parent–child relationships and children’s understandingand appraisals of their parents’ marital conflict as mediators between the marital rela-tionship and children’s adjustment.

Grych and Fincham’s (1990) cognitive-contextual framework suggests that thecontext of marital conflict and variations in children’s cognitive appraisals of theirparents’ discord influence the associations between the marital relationship and chil-dren’s adjustment. Contextual factors include characteristics of the conflict such as itsfrequency and intensity, as well as more general factors such as children’s previous

Correspondence should be addressed to Clare Stocker, Department of Psychology, University ofDenver, Denver, CO 80208, USA. Tel.: (303) 871-3591; email: [email protected]

© Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2003. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

150 Clare M. Stocker et al.

experience with marital conflict, children’s gender and age, and parent–child rela-tionships. One way that marital conflict is hypothesized to lead to children’s adjust-ment problems is through disruptions in parent–child relationships.

Previous research has shown that marital conflict has been associated with highlevels of aggression in parent–child relationships (Jouriles, Barling & O’Leary, 1987;Patterson & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1984), insecure parent–child attachment relationships(Howes & Markman, 1989), cold and angry parental behavior (Gottman & Katz,1989), and parental rejection (Fauber, Forehand, Thomas & Wierson, 1990). Thesetypes of parental behavior, in turn, have been linked to children’s adjustment prob-lems. Several recent studies have directly tested the mediating role of parental hostil-ity in linking marital conflict to children’s adjustment. Parents’ hostility and rejectingbehavior have been shown to link marital conflict to children’s behavior problems(Fauber et al., 1990; Harold et al., 1997; Osborne & Fincham, 1996). In another study,adolescents’ perceptions of parental hostility mediated between measures of maritalconflict and parental hostility to adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing be-haviors (Harold & Conger, 1997).

When investigating parent–child relationships as mediators between marital discordand children’s adjustment, it is important to examine fathers’ behavior as well asmothers’ behavior. Some previous research has found differences in men’s andwomen’s responses to marital conflict. For example, fathers in families with distressedmarriages tend to withdraw from children more than do mothers (Howes & Markman,1989). Thus, the associations between marital relationships, parent–child relationships,and children’s adjustment could vary for mothers and fathers. These associationsbetween the marital relationship and children’s adjustment may also vary as a func-tion of children’s gender and the gender combination of parent and child. Here also,research findings have been mixed. Some studies report different patterns for boys and girls and other studies find no gender effects. However, in recent meta-analyses,the gender of the child, the gender of the parent, and the combination of children’sand parents’ gender (e.g. father–daughter vs. father–son) did not consistently moder-ate the associations between marital conflict and parent–child relationships (Coiro &Emery, 1998; Erel & Burman, 1995). The current study should be in a position to shedlight on these issues as data were collected on both mothers’ and fathers’ behaviortoward boys and girls.

A second set of variables that the cognitive framework proposes mediates betweenmarital conflict and children’s adjustment is children’s understanding and interpreta-tions of their parents’ conflict (Grych & Fincham, 1990). Rather than being passiveobservers of their parents’ marital conflict, children are likely to try to understand andto interpret conflict between their mothers and fathers. Recent research has shown thatchildren who believed they were to blame for their parents’ conflict or thought theirparents were arguing about something they had done had worse outcomes than chil-dren who did not hold these beliefs (Cummings et al., 1994; Grych et al., 1992; Grych& Fincham, 1993). Feeling responsible or to blame for parents’ conflict is likely toengender feelings of guilt as well as depression and low self-esteem. The extent towhich children feel threatened or at risk when their parents fight is also likely to berelevant to their adjustment. Children who feel threatened by marital conflict may fearbecoming involved in their parents’ conflict or may be anxious that they will be hurt,either emotionally or physically, if their parents’ conflict escalates. Their anxiety ordepression may also increase if their feelings of being threatened or unsafe are tied toconcerns that their parents could be hurt or that the marriage could dissolve.

© Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2003 Social Development, 12, 2, 2003

Marital Conflict and Children’s Adjustment 151

Several studies have examined the role of children’s appraisals in linking maritalconflict to their adjustment. Children’s appraisals of threat and self-blame for parents’conflict have been shown to mediate the association between marital conflict and children’s internalizing problems in both community samples and in a sample drawnfrom battered-women’s shelters (Grych, 1999; Grych, Fincham, Jouriles & McDon-ald, 2000). Similarly, in another study children’s insecure representations of theirparents’ marital relationships mediated the link between marital conflict and children’sinternalizing problems (Davies & Cummings, 1998). Finally, in a sample of maritallyviolent families, boys’ feelings of being threatened by marital conflict mediated theassociation between marital violence and their anxiety. For girls, feelings of being to blame for parents’ conflict mediated the link between marital violence and theirinternalizing problems (Kerig, 1998). In none of these studies were children’s cogni-tive appraisals significant mediators between marital conflict and their externalizing problems.

With a few notable exceptions (e.g. Harold & Conger, 1997; Harold et al., 1997;Osborne & Fincham, 1996), researchers have not studied more than one mediatingmechanism simultaneously when examining the association between marital conflictand children’s adjustment. In the current study, we propose a model in which bothmothers’ and fathers’ hostility and children’s interpretations of marital conflict mediatethe association between marital conflict and children’s adjustment (see Figure 1). Byincluding both sets of potential mediators, we are able to examine the relative impor-tance of each type of mediator in predicting children’s adjustment outcomes. Weassessed these constructs using observational measures of marital and family interac-tions as well as children’s and parents’ reports.

Method

Participants

One hundred and thirty-six families participated in the study. The sample included 80boys and 56 girls who were 10 years, 2 months old on average (SD = 7.10 months).Children’s younger siblings were 7 years, 11 months old on average (S.D. = 5.75).


Figure 1. Theoretical model.


(Because younger siblings had difficulty completing the large number of self-reportmeasures, we did not include their data in the current paper.) Families were recruitedfrom public schools and from advertisements placed in local newspapers. Familieswere included in the sample if the parents were the biological parents of their chil-dren and if the parents were married and not separated, divorced, or remarried. Thesample was middle-class and 80% Caucasian, 13% Hispanic, 3% African American,and 3% Asian and other.

Procedure

Families came to a university laboratory for a two-hour visit. Parents each indepen-dently completed the Relationship Problem Inventory (Knox, 1971). Each parent ratedthe level of marital conflict they experienced in a number of typical problem areas(e.g. money, communication, children). The area that both parents rated the highestwas then selected by a research assistant, and parents were videotaped discussing thatarea of conflict for 10 minutes. Parents were then videotaped discussing the most positive and rewarding aspects of their marriages for five minutes. Next, the entirefamily (mother, father, child and younger sibling) was videotaped while they inter-acted together. They played a game for seven minutes (Flippers, Matel inc). This wasfollowed by a five-minute discussion about enjoyable activities the family liked to dotogether and a seven-minute discussion about areas of conflict in the family. After thevideotaped segments, parents completed questionnaires about their family relation-ships and their children’s adjustment. Children were interviewed about their familyrelationships and adjustment.

Measures

Marital Relationships. Measures of the marital relationship were derived fromparents’ self-reports and codings of videotaped marital interaction. Husbands andwives independently completed the O’Leary-Porter scale of Marital Conflict (Porter& O’Leary, 1980). This questionnaire has 10 items that are rated on 5-point Likertscales indicating the frequency of marital conflict in the presence of the child. Porterand O’Leary (1980) found that the scale had an internal consistency alpha of .86 anda two-week test-retest reliability correlation of .96. In the current study, the scale had high internal consistency alpha (.82 for mothers and .80 for fathers). Mothers’and fathers’ scores were correlated (r = .62) and thus were averaged into a single score.

Husbands’ and wives’ hostility toward each other during the videotaped maritalinteraction was rated using the Marital Interaction Coding System (Stocker, Alexander & Elias, 1996). This coding system was based in part on the InteractionalDimensions Coding System (Julien, Markman & Lindahl, 1989). The hostility scaleranged from 1 = none to 5 = frequent incidents of the following behaviors: criticizesother, blames other, puts down other, sarcastic comments, provokes partner, complainsabout partner, accuses other, impatient, cold, angry, whiny tone of voice, and body andfacial tension. Each parent’s behavior was rated at the end of three five-minute inter-vals. Each parent’s score was then averaged over the three five-minute intervals tocreate a total Hostility score. After four months of intensive training, interrater reli-ability was established by three independent coders, coding 36 interactions. The meaninterrater correlations were .85 for wives’ hostility and .60 for husbands’ hostility. The



validity of the observational marital hostility measure was demonstrated by its sig-nificant correlation with the self-report measure of marital conflict (r = .51, p < .0001).Husbands’ and wives’ scores on observed hostility were correlated (r = .65) and thuswere averaged to create a combined marital hostility score for each couple.

The dyadic scores of parents’ reports of marital conflict and their observed hostility toward each other were significantly correlated (r = .51, p < .01). Thus, they were standardized and averaged to create a composite dyadic score of maritalconflict.

Parent–Child Relationships. Measures of the parent–child relationship were from two sources: (1) children’s ratings of parents’ expression of negative emotions, and (2)observational ratings of parents’ hostility toward children during the videotaped familyinteraction. Children were interviewed separately about their mothers and fathers on an adapted version of the Family Emotional Expressiveness Questionnaire (Halberstadt, 1986; Greenberg, Kusche & Cook, 1991). The interview was furthermodified to refer to each parent’s emotional expressiveness rather than to the emo-tional expressiveness climate in the family (Stocker, Ahmed & Stall, 1997). Childrenrated 10 items about the frequency of their mothers’ and fathers’ negative emotionalexpressiveness using 4-point Likert scales that ranged from 1 = ‘hardly ever’ to 4 =‘almost all the time.’ A sample item is, ‘How much does your mother/father show that she/he is unhappy with your behavior?’ Internal consistency alphas were .79 forchildren’s reports about mothers’ negative emotional expressiveness and .82 for their reports about fathers’ negative emotional expressiveness. Halberstadt (1986) hasshown construct validity of the adult version of this measure by demonstrating sig-nificant correlations with measures of anger expressiveness, extroversion, neuroticism,trait anger, and affect intensity.

Mothers’ and fathers’ hostility toward children was coded from the videotapedfamily interaction segment using the Family Relationships Study Parent–Child Inter-action Video Coding System (Stocker, Ahmed & Stall, 1995). Parents’ hostility wascoded at the end of the three segments (game—7min, discussion of positive aspectsof family life—5min, and discussion of family conflict—7min). Each parent’s scoreswere then averaged across the three segments to create a total Hostility score. The 5-point Likert scale ranged from 1 = no incidents to 5 = frequent incidents of the following behaviors: anger, irritation, annoyance, scolding, chastising, criticizing,insulting, angry facial expressions, sarcastic remarks or raised voices. Any physicalhostility (e.g. hitting, pushing) resulted in a score of 5. After several months of train-ing, interrater reliability was established between two independent coders’ ratings of35 interactions. The interrater correlations were .82 for mothers’ hostility and .92 forfathers’ hostility. Separate coders rated parental hostility and marital hostility. Valid-ity was demonstrated by significant correlations between the observational measureof parental hostility and children’s reports of parents’ negative emotional expressive-ness. Mothers’ observed hostility was correlated with children’s reports of mothers’expression of negative affect (r = .46, p < .001). The observational measure of fathers’hostility was correlated with children’s reports of fathers’ expression of negative affect(r = .35, p < .001).

In order to obtain a composite maternal and paternal negativity score, the video-taped parental hostility measure and children’s reports of parental negative emotionalexpressiveness were standardized and averaged for each parent to create compositematernal and paternal negativity scores.



Children’s Interpretations of Parents’ Marital Conflict. Children were interviewedusing the Children’s Perceptions of Interparental Conflict Scale (CPIC) (Grych &Fincham, 1993). This measure yields three scales: (1) conflict properties: children’sperceptions of the frequency, intensity and resolution of parental conflict, (2) self-blame: the extent to which children blamed themselves for parents’ marital conflict and felt that they were the topic of parents’ conflict, and (3) threat: children’sfeelings of being threatened by parental marital conflict and how children coped with parental marital conflict. The threat and self-blame scales were used in the current study because they represented children’s cognitive and emotional responsesto and interpretations of marital conflict. The conflict properties scale, in contrast,measured children’s reports of specific behavioral features of parents’ conflict and has less to do with children’s own feelings. Therefore, it was not used in the currentanalyses.

Children responded to each item using a 3-point scale: true, sort of true, and false.Children’s beliefs about whether they were to blame for their parents’ marital conflictand whether they thought they were the topic of their parents’ conflict were assessedby the 9-item self-blame scale. Sample items from this scale are, ‘It’s usually my faultwhen my parents argue,’ and ‘My parents’ arguments are usually about something thatI did.’ The scale was internally consistent (Cronbach alpha = .81). Children’s percep-tions of being threatened by their parents’ marital conflict and their coping efficacywere assessed using the 12-item threat scale. Sample items on this scale were, ‘I getscared when my parents argue,’ and ‘When my parents argue, I can do something tomake my self feel better.’ This scale was internally consistent (Cronbach alpha = .80).Grych & Fincham (1993) report that the scales have high two-week test-retest relia-bilities: r = .76 for self-blame and r = .68 for threat.

Children’s Psychological Adjustment. Children’s internalizing problems were assessedby their self-reports of depressed mood, anxiety, and self-worth. Children’s external-izing problems were measured by parents’ reports on the externalizing scale from theChild Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (Achenbach, 1991).

Children were interviewed on the Children’s Depression Inventory (Kovacs, 1981)to assess their depressed mood. This measure includes 27 items about children’s feel-ings and behaviors in the past two weeks. For each question, children choose fromthree responses indicating increasing levels of depressed mood. Scores on all itemswere summed to create a total score. The scale was internally consistent (alpha = .85).

Children reported on their feelings of anxiety using the Revised Manifest AnxietyScale (Reynolds & Richmond, 1978). The questionnaire includes an anxiety scale anda social desirability scale. The anxiety scale was used in the current study. Childrenrespond ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to 28 items such as, ‘I worry about what is going to happen.’ Inthe current sample, the anxiety scale had an internal consistency alpha of .91.Reynolds and Richmond (1978) report that the scale has a nine-month test-retest reliability of r = .65.

Children completed the global self-worth scale from the Self Perception Profile forChildren (Harter, 1985). The six-item scale assesses children’s overall self-esteem(sample item = ‘Some kids are happy with themselves as a person.’). Items are pre-sented to children in a structured alternative format. Children first choose which oftwo hypothetical descriptions are true about them. They then decide if the descriptionis ‘sort of true’ or ‘really true.’ Items were reverse scored so that higher scores indicate lower self-worth. Harter (1985) reports that the average internal consistency



alpha for the self-worth scale was .80 across four independent samples. In the currentsample, the internal consistency alpha was .69.

The three measures of internalizing problems each represent a sub-type of inter-nalizing problems and thus are conceptually linked. Indeed, in the current sample, thethree measures were highly correlated so they were standardized and averaged tocreate a composite internalizing behavior problems measure. (Correlations betweenthe three child-report indices of internalizing problems were: depression and anxiety,r = .78; depression and self-worth r = .73; anxiety and self-worth r = .60.)

Mothers and fathers independently completed the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991) about their child. This questionnaire includes 113 behavior prob-lems that can occur in children aged 4 to 16 years. Respondents rate each item on a3-point scale in which 0 = not true, 1 = somewhat or sometimes true, and 2 = verytrue or often true. The externalizing behavior problems scale was used in the currentstudy. We did not use parents’ reports of children’s internalizing problems because previous research has shown that parents are not valid reporters of their children’sinternal states (Achenbach, McConoughy & Howell, 1987). The Cronbach alphas forthe externalizing behavior scales were .85 and .84 for mothers’ and fathers’ reports,respectively. Mothers’ and fathers’ reports were correlated (r = .54) so they were combined.

Results

Preliminary Analyses

We first examined the data for gender effects. Correlations among the study variableswere run separately for boys and girls to examine differences in the associationsbetween marital conflict, parental negativity, children’s appraisals of marital conflict,and children’s adjustment outcomes. Differences in the magnitude of correlations forboys and girls were tested with the Fisher Z tests. Results showed that there were nosignificant gender differences in the pattern of correlations. Thus, the remaining analyses were conducted on the sample as a whole.

Table 1 displays the associations between marital conflict, parental negativity, chil-dren’s appraisals, and children’s adjustment. All variables were significantly and pos-itively correlated, with the exception of a nonsignificant relation between children’sfeelings of blame and their externalizing problems. Overall, the pattern of correlationswas as expected. Higher levels of marital conflict were associated with more parentalnegativity, more feelings of blame and threat for marital conflict, and more internal-izing and externalizing adjustment problems. Higher levels of parental negativity wereassociated with more feelings of blame and threat for marital conflict and moreadjustment problems. Finally, the more children felt threatened and blamed for maritalconflict, the more adjustment problems they experienced.

Tests of Mediation

We used Baron and Kenny’s (1986) criterion to test the roles of maternal and pater-nal negativity and children’s cognitive appraisals of marital conflict as mediatorsbetween the marital relationship and children’s adjustment problems. To show medi-ation, the following conditions must be met: (1) There is a significant relation betweenthe predictor (marital conflict) and the criterion variables (children’s adjustment prob-



lems); (2) a significant relation exists between the predictor (marital conflict) and themediator variables (parental negativity and children’s appraisals); (3) there is a sig-nificant relation between the mediator variables (parental negativity and children’sappraisals) and the criterion variables (children’s adjustment problems), when both areentered simultaneously into a regression analysis; and (4) when the mediator and pre-dictor variables are entered simultaneously, the magnitude of the association betweenthe predictor and the criterion variable is substantially reduced.

As shown in Table 1, a significant relation existed between the predictor variable(marital conflict) and the outcome variables (children’s internalizing and externaliz-ing problems) and between the predictor variable and the proposed mediators (mater-nal and paternal negativity and children’s appraisals of blame and threat), conditions1 and 2. The third and fourth conditions were tested using regression analyses. Separate equations were run for internalizing problems and externalizing problems.In step 1, the adjustment measure was regressed onto the marital conflict measure. Instep 2, the adjustment measure was regressed onto the marital conflict measure andmeasures of the four potential mediators simultaneously. Mediation was shown if: (1)the mediator was significantly related to the outcome when entered with the predic-tors, and (2) the association between the predictor and the outcome measure was sub-stantially reduced when the mediator variables were entered into the equations withthe predictor variables.

Table 2 shows the results from the regression analyses to test mediation. For chil-dren’s internalizing behavior problems, both mothers’ and fathers’ negativity and chil-dren’s feelings of being to blame and being threatened by parents’ conflict mediatedthe association between marital conflict and internalizing problems. The betas for eachof these four variables were significant and the previously significant beta for maritalconflict were substantially reduced when the mediators were entered into the models.For children’s externalizing problems, mothers’ and fathers’ negativity significantlymediated the association between marital conflict and children’s externalizing prob-lems. However, children’s feelings of self-blame and being threatened by marital con-flict were not significant mediators.1


Table 1. Correlations Between Marital Conflict, Parental Negativity, Children’sCognitive Appraisals, and Children’s Adjustment

Marital Maternal PaternalConflict Negativity Negativity Blame Threat Internalizing Externalizing

Marital 1.0Conflict

Maternal .45 1.0Negativity

Paternal .36 .55 1.0Negativity

Blame .30 .37 .37 1.0Threat .34 .24 .27 .36 1.0Internalizing .24 .47 .44 .43 .54 1.0Externalizing .31 .43 .50 .12 .21 .26 1.0

Note: All correlations p < .05, except the correlation of .12 between blame and externalizing was not significant.


Discussion

Results from this study were consistent with previous research in showing that maritalconflict was positively associated with children’s internalizing and externalizing prob-lems (See Davies & Cummings, 1994; Fincham et al., 1994; Grych & Fincham, 1993;Reid & Crisafulli, 1990, for reviews). Marital conflict was also positively associatedwith both mothers’ and fathers’ hostility toward children. This finding replicatessimilar results from other studies that suggest a negative spill over from marital hos-tility to parental hostility (Gottman & Katz, 1989; Harold & Conger, 1997; Jourileset al., 1987; Kerig et al., 1993; Stouthamer-Loeber, 1984). Marital conflict was alsoassociated with children’s cognitive appraisals of parents’ conflict. Consistent withfindings from several previous studies, children felt more self-blame and more threat-ened by conflict in families in which there were higher levels of marital conflict thanin families with lower levels of conflict (Cummings et al., 1994; Grych & Fincham,1993; O’Brien et al., 1991).

The primary goal of this study was to investigate the processes connecting themarital relationship to children’s adjustment. Both mothers’ and fathers’ negativity sig-nificantly mediated the association between marital conflict and children’s internaliz-ing and externalizing problems. As suggested in the cognitive-contextual framework(Grych & Fincham, 1990) the quality of the parent–child relationship can influencethe impact of marital conflict on children’s adjustment. Supportive parent–child rela-tionships, for example, may buffer children from the stress of marital conflict. Alter-natively, marital conflict may spill over to parent–child relationships leading to morenegative affect and hostility directed from parents to children. Children’s feelings of depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem are likely to increase when they are the


Table 2. Regressions to Test the Mediating Roles of Maternal and Paternal Negativity and Children’s Cognitive Appraisals

Beta R2 Change R2

Internalizing ProblemsStep 1 marital conflict .24** .06**Step 2 marital conflict -.12

maternal negativity .27**paternal negativity .16*self-blame .16*threat .41*** .46*** .40***

Externalizing ProblemsStep 1 marital conflict .31*** .10***Step 2 marital conflict .09

maternal negativity .21*paternal negativity .38***self-blame -.15threat .08 .31*** .20***

*= p < .05; **= p <.01; ***= p < .001.


recipients of parental hostility. Additionally, children may model the hostility theyexperience from their parents, which may lead to problems with externalizing behav-iors. Finally, children’s emotional regulation may be disrupted if they are exposed tohigh levels of parental negative affect. Children who have difficulty regulating theiremotions are at increased risk for depression or anxiety as well as for impulsive oraggressive behavior (Dodge & Garber, 1991).

The associations between marital conflict and parental negativity were of similarmagnitude for mothers and fathers. Our findings do not support some suggestions inthe literature that fathers’ behavior to children is more greatly impacted by maritalconflict than mothers’ behavior (Belsky, Rovine & Fish, 1989; Kerig et al., 1993;Osborne & Fincham, 1996). The findings, however, are consistent with results from recent meta-analyses which showed that the associations between marital discordand parental hostility did not differ for mothers and fathers (Coiro & Emery, 1998;Erel & Burman, 1995). The fact that both mothers’ and fathers’ hostility were significant mediators suggest that one parent–child relationship could not substitutefor another. Rather, both were important in linking marital conflict to children’s adjustment.

In addition to parent–child relationships, we examined whether a second set of mediators, children’s cognitive appraisals of their parents’ marital conflict, mediatedthe association between the marital relationship and children’s adjustment. Our resultsreplicated findings from recent research by showing that children’s feelings of self-blame and being threatened by their parents’ conflict mediated between marital con-flict and children’s internalizing problems but not their externalizing problems (Davies& Cummings, 1998; Grych et al., 2000; Kerig, 1998). As suggested by the cognitive-contextual framework, the meaning children attribute to parents’ conflict can influencehow the conflict is associated with their functioning (Grych & Fincham, 1990). Chil-dren who blame themselves presumably feel responsible for and may feel guilty abouttheir parents’ conflict and in turn feel more anxious, depressed, and worse about them-selves than children who do not feel responsible. Children who feel threatened by theirparents’ conflict or who find it difficult to cope with may be anxious and worried thatthey will be hurt when their parents fight. They may be depressed if they feel that theirhome is not safe. Finally, their internalizing problems may increase if they are worriedthat their parents may be hurt or may get divorced.

Children’s feelings of being to blame or being threatened by marital conflict did notmediate the link between marital conflict and children’s externalizing problems. It is possible that a different type of cognitive appraisal, not measured in our study, mediates between marital conflict and children’s externalizing problems. For example,children’s feelings of anger and resentment toward their parents for their marital con-flict (not measured in the CPIC) may link marital conflict to their externalizing prob-lems. In future research, it would be very useful to explore children’s appraisals ofmarital conflict that are relevant for their externalizing problems. Another possibilityis that variations in children’s externalizing problems, in contrast to internalizing prob-lems, may involve more direct processes such as modeling and may be less impactedby children’s feelings and cognitions about their parents’ conflict.

Unlike results from some recent studies (Harold et al., 1997; Kerig, 1998; Osborne& Fincham, 1996), we did not find that pattern of associations among marital conflict,parental hostility, children’s appraisals, and children’s adjustment differed for boys andgirls. These differences may have emerged if our sample had been larger. In futureresearch, it will be important to continue to examine whether the processes connect-



ing marital conflict to children’s adjustment differ as a function of children’s genderor the interaction of children’s and parents’ gender.

A strength of the current study is that measures were collected from multiple raters(mothers, fathers, and children) and from observations of couples and families inter-acting in typical ways. Thus, we had assessments of various family members’ percep-tions, which provide somewhat different information. We also had data on bothmother–child and father–child relationships. Additionally, we simultaneously exam-ined two potential mediators between the marital relationship and children’s adjustment(parental hostility and children’s appraisals). Thus, we could determine the unique rolethey each played in predicting children’s internalizing and externalizing problems.

Several limitations of this study should be noted. First, although our theoreticalmodel proposed that marital conflict leads to increases in parental hostility and chil-dren’s feelings of threat and blame which in turn affect children’s adjustment problems,the direction of causality cannot be confirmed with these data collected at a single pointin time. Some of the associations may be bi-directional; for example, children’s behav-ior problems could operate to increase levels of marital conflict. Second, there could besome concern that the mediating role of children’s appraisals in explaining the linkbetween marital conflict and children’s internalizing problems was due in part to sharedmethod variance. Children reported on their cognitive appraisals and on their internal-izing problems but not their externalizing problems. We felt that the best method ofassessing children’s appraisals of marital conflict and their internalizing problems wasdirectly asking children about these constructs. As mentioned earlier, we chose not to use parents’ reports of children’s internalizing problems because of concerns abouttheir validity (Achenbach et al., 1987). Concerns about mono informant bias are less-ened somewhat because children reported on parents’ negative emotional expression(which along with observed hostility made up the measure of parental negativity) andthis construct mediated between marital conflict and both internalizing problems (thatchildren reported) and externalizing problems (that parents reported).

It should be kept in mind that a community sample was used in this study. Processesconnecting marital discord to children’s adjustment may differ in families character-ized by extreme marital discord or marital violence. Additionally, our results are gen-eralizable to children in middle childhood. The associations between marital conflict,parent–child hostility, children’s appraisals, and children’s adjustment may vary as afunction of children’s developmental level. Longitudinal research would be useful indetermining the impact of children’s developmental level on these associations. Forexample, children’s perspective taking, cognitive reasoning about relationships andcoping processes all change with development and could affect the role that children’sappraisals of marital conflict play in linking marital conflict to their adjustment.

In summary, findings from this study highlight the importance of simultaneouslyexamining both parent–child relationships and children’s own appraisals and inter-pretations of their parents’ conflict when attempting to understand and modify theimpact of marital conflict on children’s adjustment.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grant R29 MH51783 and RQ1 MH51783 from the National Institute of Health.

Note

1. We ran a regression model excluding the parental negativity variables and examined whether blameand threat mediated between martial conflict and children’s externalizing behaviors. Results showed thatblame and threat were not significant mediators even when tested alone.


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