Beyond destructive and constructive interparental conflict: Children’s psychological vulnerability to interparental disorganization.

Abstract

Guided by models of family unpredictability, this study was designed to identify the distinctive sequelae of disorganized interparental conflict, a dimension of interparental conflict characterized by abrupt, inexplicable changes in parental emotional lability, conflict tactics, and verbalizations. Participants included 208 kindergarten children (M age = 5.74 years; 56% girls), mothers, and their caregiving partners from racially diverse backgrounds (e.g., 44% Black) who participated in a longitudinal study with two annual measurement occasions. At Wave 1, trained observers assessed disorganized interparental conflict. Observational and survey assessments were used to assess several family (i.e., interparental conflict, parenting difficulties, parent psychopathology, family instability) and demographic (i.e., children's gender, household income, parent education) characteristics. Assessments of child functioning at each wave included psychological adjustment (i.e., externalizing and internalizing symptoms, prosocial behavior), social information processing difficulties, and attention to emotion cues. Findings from structural equation modeling analyses indicated disorganized interparental conflict significantly predicted decreases in children's prosocial behavior and increases in their externalizing problems, angry reactivity to social problems, and biased attention to angry and sad cues over a one-year period. Results were significant while controlling for established measures of interparental conflict, parenting difficulties, parent psychopathology, family instability, and demographic characteristics. The findings suggest that disorganized characteristics of interparental conflict may be an important domain of clinical change beyond the established targets of family harshness and adversity.

Parental Attachment and Psychosocial Adjustment in Adolescents Exposed to Marital Conflict

“…When young people perceive a possible risk to their emotional security, they show concern and react immediately to this situation or react with indifference [ 28 ]. Thus, those conflicts characterized by attitudes of aggression and anger between the parents are a serious risk factor for the development of maladaptive skills in children and adolescents [ 29 ]. When they are exposed to marital conflict, information processing before a certain episode with peers presents a certain tendency to hostility and anger [ 8 ].…”

Psychological States of Parents and Their Subjective Assessment of Family Relations as the Factors of Mental Development and Health of Children Aged 4, Born After IVF

“…С разных методологических позиций в отечественной и зарубежной психологии показаны значение и роль социальной среды в психическом развитии человека. Исследования в рамках различных отраслей психологического знания определяют семейную среду не только как посредника общественно-исторического опыта в воспитании и прогрессивном развитии детей, но и как условия, способствующие формированию проблем развития [17], нарушений психологического [12], психического [15] и соматического здоровья детей [11]. Возможность лечения бесплодия методами вспомогательных репродуктивных технологий (ВРТ) позволила появиться новой категории семей [7], в отношении которых в настоящее время отмечается ограниченность научных данных, позволяющих судить о системе внутрисемейных отношений как факторе психического развития детей.…”