Positivity and Negativity in Interparental Conflict

Abstract

Although children are known to be highly sensitive to interparental conflict, important questions remain regarding which specific combinations of positive and negative behaviors as well as verbal and nonverbal expressions are most predictive of children's perceptions. In this pilot study, we examined observational data on interparental conflict as predictors of children's reports of perceived threat and insecurity in 43 families. Fathers' nonverbal negativity was strongly linked to children's perceived threat and insecure family representations, but both parents' nonverbal and mothers' verbal positivity buffered its impact on children. Our findings support previous research findings that parents' negativity may have less adverse effects on children when it takes place in a positive family climate. Interparental conflict is well established as a major predictor of child maladjustment (Cummings & Davies, 2010). Two leading models propose key variables explaining this association. First, the cognitive-contextual model (Grych & Fincham, 1990) posits that children who perceive high levels of threat when faced with interparental conflict are likely to be particularly distressed. Second, emotional security theory (Davies & Cummings, 1994) holds that maintaining felt security is a primary goal for children in the family setting.According to this theory, children from high-conflict homes are expected to develop insecure family representations, marked by low confidence in parents' abilities to manage difficulties for the purpose of preserving family stability. Both dimensions, perceived threat and insecure family representations, were empirically supported in a number of longitudinal tests as explanatory mechanisms linking interparental conflict and children's long-term adjustment (e.g., Cummings, George, McCoy, & Davies, 2012;Grych, Harold, & Miles, 2003). The present study builds directly on these two models, using observational data on interparental conflict to specify the dimensions that predict children's perceptions of threat and insecurity in this context.Previous research has reported that it is not whether couples argue but how they do that is most pertinent to the well-being of children. emerged as a more powerful predictor of children's maladjustment than parents' overt hostility. In line with the notion that children are exceptionally sensitive to interparental tensions, children distinguish "mixed message resolution" (inconsistent in content and emotion, e.g., an angry apology) from consistently positive conflict endings when responding to analogue unresolved conflicts (Shifflett-Simpson & Cummings, 1996). They are also sensitive to adults' emotional tone in their tendency to display negative reactions when faced with interparental conflict (Cummings, Goeke-Morey, Papp, & Dukewich, 2002). In sum, these prior findings showed that (1) observational data of interparental conflict are a particularly reliable measure in the field and (2) the impact of interparental conflict on children is probably best u...

Impaired Interparental Relationships in Families of Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

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Affective Behavior in Parent Couples Undergoing Couple Therapy: Contrasting Case Studies

“…These steps were repeated for the coding of the second partner. This coding method demonstrated good validity in previous studies (Kuster et al, 2015;Zemp et al, 2016Zemp et al, , 2017, and rater teams achieved a high interrater reliability (i.e., Cohen's kappa ≥ 0.90) in previous research (Zemp et al, 2017;Leuchtmann et al, 2019). A master coder from the University of Zurich trained the first author.…”

“…The SPAFF has been widely used and is an attested and externally validated approach to the coding of observational data, particularly for affective behavior in couples ( Johnson, 2002 ; Zemp et al, 2017 ). This adapted system allowed the coding of discrete behaviors and is comprised of observational scales divided in five main categories: nonverbal positivity, nonverbal negativity, verbal positivity, verbal negativity, and neutral/nothing ( Zemp et al, 2016 ). The verbal positivity category is composed of five subcategories: interest, validation, affect/caring, emotional disclosure, and constructive criticism.…”

“…The most widespread studies focus on the link between couple interactions and romantic satisfaction, showing that positive couple interactions are related to higher relationship satisfaction (e.g., Gottman and Krokoff, 1989 ; Rogge et al, 2006 ; Friend et al, 2017 ). Other studies have explored the link between couple interactions and outcomes, such as (1) depressive symptoms, in which negative interactions were related to higher reports of depressive symptoms (e.g., Brown and Harris, 2012 ); (2) family functioning, in which conflictual power dynamics in couple interactions were associated with lower family functioning (e.g., Lindahl et al, 2004 ); and (3) children’s reports of perceived threats and insecurity toward interparental conflict, in which negativity in parental conflict was linked with children’s perceptions of threats and insecure family representations (e.g., Zemp et al, 2016 ). Among this body of research, couple interactions have been investigated at various life stages, such as in the transition to marriage (e.g., Markman et al, 2010 ), transition to parenthood (e.g., Tanner Stapleton and Bradbury, 2012 ), or in elderly couples (e.g., Story et al, 2007 ).…”

The Impact of Interparental Conflict on Children's Attention and Memory Performance

“…This line of experimental research has revealed two important findings: First, children's responses to experimental conflict vary depending on the specific form of conflict expression that is displayed. Conflict resolution emerged as a critical dimension to determine how children perceive and react to couple interactions (Zemp, Bodenmann, Backes et al, 2016). Analog studies reported that unresolved conflict stimuli elicited more distress and more negative appraisals in children than resolved conflicts or neutral conversations (Goeke‐Morey et al, 2007; Shifflett‐Simpson & Cummings, 1996).…”