Marital Hostility, Hostile Parenting, and Child Aggression: Associations From Toddlerhood to School Age

Abstract

Objective The spillover hypothesis suggests that childhood aggression results from spillover of inter-parental conflict to poor parenting, which promotes aggressive child behavior. This study was designed to examine the spillover hypothesis in non-genetically related parent – child dyads from the toddler period through age 6. Method A sample of 361 sets of children, adoptive parents, and birth parents from the Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS) was assessed from child age 9 months to 6 years on measures of adoptive parent financial strain, antisocial traits, marital hostility, hostile parenting, and child aggression. Structural equation modeling was used to examine links from financial strain, parent antisocial traits, and marital hostility in infancy and toddlerhood to hostile parenting and child aggression at age 4.5 and 6 years. Results Spillover of marital conflict from child age 18 to 27 months was associated with more parental hostility in mothers and fathers at 27 months. In turn, adoptive fathers’ parental hostility, but not mothers’, was associated with aggression in children at age 4.5 years. However, there was no significant spillover from hostile parenting at 4.5 years to child aggression at 6 years. Birth mother antisocial traits were unassociated with child aggression. Conclusion This study is the first to examine spillover of marital hostility to parenting to child aggression from toddlerhood through age 6 years in an adoption design, highlighting the impact of these environmental factors from the toddler to preschool period. The findings support the potential benefit of early identification of marital hostility.

Spillover between interparental conflict and parent–child conflict within and across days.

“…Most prior research investigating the link between the interparental relationship and the parent-child relationship has used cross-sectional or longitudinal designs with each time point separated by one or more years (e.g., Lansford, Staples, Bates, Pettit, & Dodge, 2013; Stover et al, 2016). These designs have frequently relied on participants to recall the frequency of interparental and parenting behaviors over the prior year.…”

Like Father, like Child: Early Life Family Adversity and Children’s Bullying Behaviors in Elementary School

“…This has occurred despite research documenting the important role of fathers in child development (Lamb 2004 ; Ramchandani and Psychogiou 2009 ). Aggressive and antisocial behavior of fathers, and less that of mothers, has consistently been associated with aggressive behavior of their child (Avakame 1998 ; Jaffee et al 2003 ; Stover et al 2016 ). Moreover, fathers’ hostility in particular is strongly associated with children’s externalizing and aggressive behavior (Carrère and Bowie 2012 ; Stover et al 2016 ).…”

“…Aggressive and antisocial behavior of fathers, and less that of mothers, has consistently been associated with aggressive behavior of their child (Avakame 1998 ; Jaffee et al 2003 ; Stover et al 2016 ). Moreover, fathers’ hostility in particular is strongly associated with children’s externalizing and aggressive behavior (Carrère and Bowie 2012 ; Stover et al 2016 ). To investigate the specific role of fathers, next to mothers, in the development of children’s bullying behaviors, the current prospective population-based study utilized parents’ own perceptions of the environment and also their behaviors.…”

“…Parental hostility poses a significant threat to child development (Richmond and Stocker 2008 ). Hostile behavior of parents (e.g., irritability, uncontrollable outbursts of temper) is directly associated with children’s externalizing and aggression problems (Carrère and Bowie 2012 ; Rijlaarsdam et al 2014 ; Stover et al 2016 ). However, to our knowledge, little research has been conducted that specifically examined the effect of having hostile parents in relation to bullying behavior of the child.…”

The Effects of Mother Participation in Relationship Education on Coparenting, Parenting, and Child Social Competence: Modeling Spillover Effects for Low‐Income Minority Preschool Children

“…An early meta-analysis of 33 studies documented the negative association between interparental conflict and child adjustment, with a mean effect size of d = À.16 (Reid & Crisafulli, 1990). Several studies utilizing genetically informed designs find an influence of the environment, including relational hostility and hostile parenting, on children's social competence behaviors, above and beyond the influence of shared genes (Rhoades et al, 2011;Stover et al, 2012Stover et al, , 2016. Concurrent links are found at all stages of child and adolescent development (Benson et al, 2008;El-Sheikh et al, 2009;Kouros, Merrilees, & Cummings, 2008).…”