Interparental conflict and children's school adjustment: The explanatory role of children's internal representations of interparental and parent-child relationships.

Abstract

This study examined how children’s insecure internal representations of interparental and parent–child relationships served as explanatory mechanisms in multiple pathways linking interparental conflict and parent emotional unavailability with the emotional and classroom engagement difficulties the children had in their adjustment to school. With their parents, 229 kindergarten children (127 girls and 102 boys, mean age = 6.0 years, SD = .50, at Wave 1) participated in this multimethod, 3-year longitudinal investigation. Findings revealed that children’s insecure representations of the interparental relationship were a significant intervening mechanism in associations between observational ratings of interparental conflict and child and teacher reports on children’s emotional and classroom difficulties in school over a 2-year period. Moreover, increased parental emotional unavailability accompanying high levels of interparental conflict was associated with children’s insecure representations of the parent–child relationship and children’s difficulties in classroom engagement at school entry. The findings highlight the importance of understanding the intrinsic processes that contribute to difficulties with stage-salient tasks for children who are experiencing interparental discord.

Okul Öncesi̇ Dönemde Okula Uyum Süreci̇ne İli̇şki̇n Öğretmen Görüşleri̇

“…It is seen that little children are more disadvantaged concerning the adaptation to preschool education. The researches carried out indicate that the children, who have trouble in adapting to school, are little children (Datar, 2006;Sturge-Apple, Davies, Winter, Cummings and Schermerhorn, 2008;Yoleri, 2014). Teachers expressed that the children, who have attention deficit and who are hyperactive, have problems in the adaptation process.…”

Mother–child emotion dialogues in families exposed to interparental violence

“…Empirical evidence consistently shows that children's understanding of the meaning of IPV experiences is important for their psychosocial adjustment (e.g., Grych, Harold, & Miles, 2003;Sturge-Apple, Davies, Winter, Cummings, & Schermerhorn, 2008). Also, diverse indicators of effective parenting behavior and better quality of the parent-child relationship have been linked to more positive child adjustment in the aftermath of exposure to IPV (Afifi & MacMillan, 2011;Holt, Buckley, & Whelan, 2008;Hungerford et al, 2012;Levendosky et al, 2003).…”

The role of skin conductance level reactivity in the impact of children’s exposure to interparental conflict on their attention performance

“…Although such insecure representations may be adaptive by enhancing children's ability to identify danger cues in high-conflict homes, maladaptive implications for their long-term adjustment are reported. Presuming to serve as schemata for guiding decisions and information processing, they have emerged to be a primary intervening mechanism in the association between interparental conflict and children's academic maladjustment over two years (Sturge-Apple, Davies, Winter, Cummings, & Schermerhorn, 2008). Beyond, several studies have explored the underlying processes in the relation between children's emotional insecurity and their functioning in the school setting, including (1) the role of sleep disruptions El-Sheikh, Buckhalt, Keller, Cummings, & Acebo, 2007), (2) negative peer information processing (e.g., Bascoe, Davies, Sturge-Apple, & Cummings, 2009), and (3) attention performance (e.g., Davies et al, 2008).…”