Spillover between marital quality and parent–child relationship quality: Parental depressive symptoms as moderators.

Abstract

Using a daily diary method, this study examined concurrent and time-lagged relations between marital and parent-child relationship qualities, providing a test of the spillover and compensatory hypotheses. Additionally, this study tested both mothers’ and fathers’ depressive symptoms as moderators of these daily linkages. Participants were 203 families, in which mothers and fathers completed daily diaries for 15 days. At the end of each reporting day, parents independently rated the emotional quality of their relationship with their spouse and with their child that day. Controlling for global levels of marital satisfaction, marital conflict, and parenting, a positive association was found between mothers’ and fathers’ daily ratings of marital quality and their ratings of parent-child relationship quality, supporting the spillover hypothesis. When considering time-lagged relations, support was found for the compensatory hypothesis for mothers: lower levels of marital quality were related to increases in mother-child relationship quality from one day to the next. Further, both maternal and paternal depressive symptoms moderated the link between marital quality and the other parent’s relationship quality with their child. Whereas maternal depressive symptoms strengthened spillover relations for fathers on the next day, paternal depression was related to less spillover for mothers on the same day. Alternative models did not find evidence for parent-child relationship quality as a predictor of changes in marital quality on the next day. The findings underscore the importance of the quality of the marital relationship for predicting the quality of other family relationships.

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

“…Future daily reporting studies might also examine potential moderators of the spillover between interparental conflict and parent-child conflict, with an eye towards identifying additional targets for intervention. For example, some researchers have investigated the degree to which depressive symptoms may moderate this association (Kouros et al, 2014), and the field is ripe for additional work in this area. Research that uses daily reporting methods with multiple time points within and across days may be best suited for studying these dynamic family processes.…”

“…A small number of studies have used daily reporting designs to investigate unidirectional (Chung, Flook, & Fuligni, 2009) and bidirectional effects between the marital or interparental relationship and the parent-child relationship (Almeida, Wethington, & Chandler, 1999; Kouros, Papp, Goeke-Morey, & Cummings, 2014; Margolin, Christensen, & John, 1996; Sears, Repetti, Reynolds, Robles, & Krull, 2016). With one exception (Margolin et al, 1996), these studies have collected data at one time point each day to reflect aggregate experiences on that day.…”

“…Reciprocal effects from the parent-child relationship to the marital relationship were present but only for fathers (Almeida et al, 1999). When Kouros et al (2014) investigated next-day associations in a sample of preadolescent children (mean age = 13), they found that mothers who reported lower levels of marital quality on one day actually reported higher levels of mother-child relationship quality the next day, and they found no evidence for reciprocal effects. The former finding contradicted the spillover hypothesis and instead provided support for the compensatory hypothesis.…”

Repercussões do Conflito Conjugal para o Ajustamento de Crianças e Adolescentes: Um Estudo Teórico

“…No contexto internacional, diversos estudiosos do tema há mais de duas décadas vêm se preocupando em discutir os efeitos dos conflitos conjugais sobre o desenvolvimento dos filhos (Barletta & O'Mara, 2006;Cummings & Davies, 2002;Davies & Cummings, 1994;Grych & Fincham, 1990;Kouros, Goeke-Morey, Papp, & Cummings, 2014;Zimet & Jacob, 2000). Embora ainda de forma modesta, na última década apareceram estudos nacionais de revisão da literatura que abordam a influência das relações familiares sobre o comportamento dos filhos.…”

A longitudinal examination of positive parenting following an acceptance-based couple intervention.

“…Furthermore, systems theory and empirical research studies alike consistently support associations between marital relationships and parenting processes, most often through an negative emotional spillover process where tension in the marital dyad is transferred to the parent-child dyad (e.g. Belsky, 1984; Cummings & Davies, 2010; Erel & Burman, 1995; Katz & Gottman, 1996; Kouros, Papp, Goeke-Morey, & Cummings, 2014; Margolin, Gordis, & John, 2001; Minuchin, 1985). On the flip side, Masten and Cicchetti (2010) discussed how positive interactions in one part of a system can engender positive cascades across generations.…”