Fathers’ marital conflict and children’s socioemotional skills: A moderated-mediation model of conflict resolution and parenting.

Abstract

Marital conflict is common in many families. The effects of marital conflict may often spill over to parentchild dyads and affect children's development via their parenting practices. However, couples handle their marital conflict in different ways, and conflict resolution strategies may play a role in children's outcomes. Although mother-reported marital conflict has been a primary focus in most prior studies, little is known about fathers' perspectives. To that end, we examined the mediating effect of fathers' parenting in the association between the frequency of marital conflict and mother-reported children's socioemotional skills in preschool, as well as the moderating role of father constructive conflict resolution frequency in the association between father reports of the frequency of the marital conflict and parenting. Results indicate that father parenting warmth and parenting stress mediated the association between the frequency of marital conflict and children's socioemotional skills. We also found that father reports of the frequency of the marital conflict was positively associated with involvement and negatively associated with warmth at higher levels of constructive conflict resolution frequency. Fathers who reported higher constructive conflict resolution frequency showed higher father involvement and warmth. Finally, the moderated-mediation analysis revealed that, after accounting for mothers' parenting variables, father warmth was the moderated mediator, such that there was a negative indirect effect between the frequency of marital conflict and children's socioemotional skills through father warmth at average and higher levels of constructive conflict resolution frequency.

Association of parents’ work-related stress and children’s socioemotional competency: Indirect effects of family mealtimes.

“…Future research should replicate these findings while considering recent changes in factors that influence family mealtime dynamics, such as information and communication technology and work environment shifts (Epp & Price, 2018; Jones, 2018). It may also look on the importance of family mealtimes in reducing parental conflict, which may also impact children’s outcomes (Gong et al, 2023).…”

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“…According to Q. Gong et al (2023), the extent to which the negative consequences of marital conflict affect the child depends, among other things, on the child's gender, age, education, ethnicity, and quality of parent-child relationship.…”

“…As J. Zhu et al (2022) and Q. Gong et al (2023) believe, there are variables in this process that disrupt and/or intensify this relationship. Therefore, to prevent the negative consequences of marital conflict and to deal with its harmful consequences, it is necessary to identify the variables capable of this influence and to study them.…”

Effectiveness of a Transdiagnostic Educational Package Based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Schema Therapy, and Meaning Therapy on Psychological Well-being and Marital Burnout in Women Experiencing Emotional Divorce

“…Research shows that conflicting couples exhibit the lowest levels of marital satisfaction and the highest likelihood of divorce (Fahimi & Taghvaei, 2022). When the intimate relationship stops, numerous conflicts, frequent criticisms, silence, lack of emotional support, and unresolved issues arise, leading over time to marital burnout (Gong et al, 2023;Parsakia et al, 2023). Marital burnout is a distressing state resulting from a mismatch between expectations and reality, and its level depends on the couple's adaptability and beliefs.…”