Understanding how and why effortful control moderates children’s vulnerability to interparental conflict.

Thompson, Morgan J.; Davies, Patrick T.; Hentges, Rochelle F.; Sturge‐Apple, Melissa L.; Parry, Lucia Q.

doi:10.1037/dev0000909

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 73 publications

(114 reference statements)

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“…Results from the present study provided some of the first insights into the etiology and implications of social avoidance among young children in mainland China. Our findings added to the field of research on marital conflict interacting with the characteristics of the child in the prediction of child dysfunction (David and Murphy, 2007;Hentges et al, 2015;Thompson et al, 2020). Despite the contribution of this research to the existing literature, there are some limitations that should be noted.…”

Section: Limitations and Directions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 95%

The moderating effect of marital conflict on the relationship between social avoidance and socio-emotional functioning among young children in suburban China

et al. 2022

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Social avoidance has been found to be related to negative social adjustment, yet evidence of the relationship between social avoidance and social adjustment is very limited in suburban preschoolers in China. Moreover, the underlying mechanisms that help to explain the associations between social avoidance and socio-emotional adjustment remain poorly considered. The goal of the present study was to examine the moderating effect of marital conflict in the link between social avoidance and indices of socio-emotional functioning among young children in mainland China. Participants were N = 256 children aged from 49 to 72 months (125 boys, 131 girls, Mage = 59.06 months, SD = 6.58) attending preschools/kindergartens in suburban areas of Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. Multi-source assessments were employed, with mothers reporting marital conflict as well as rating their children’s social withdrawal (i.e., social avoidance, shyness, unsociability), and teachers assessing indices of children’s socio-emotional functioning at school (i.e., anxious-fearful behavior, peer exclusion, and loneliness). Children were asked about their loneliness. Among the results, social avoidance was positively associated with anxious-fearful behavior, peer exclusion, and loneliness (marginal significance). Moreover, as hypothesized, marital conflict was found to exacerbate the relations between social avoidance and peer exclusion, and loneliness. Results are discussed in terms of the etiology and implications of social avoidance among young children in mainland China.

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Section: Limitations and Directions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 95%

The moderating effect of marital conflict on the relationship between social avoidance and socio-emotional functioning among young children in suburban China

et al. 2022

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“…However, two related lines of research do inform us about potential interactions between environmental and individual characteristics within the familial context. First, based on the clear links between temperament and personality as two traditions to describe individual differences across the life span (De Pauw & Mervielde, 2010 ), we can learn from the few studies that have examined the moderating role of children's temperament in associations between interparental conflict and developmental outcomes (David & Murphy, 2007 ; Davies & Windle, 2001 ; Hentges et al., 2015 ; Thompson et al., 2020 ). Overall, these studies generated findings showing that different temperamental attributes (i.e., task orientation, dysrhythimicity, effortful control, negative emotionality) affected the extent to which interparental discord was associated with behavioral problems and peer relations in preschoolers and adolescents.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moderation of associations between interparental stress and (mal)adaptation by adolescents' personality: Contrasting differential susceptibility and diathesis–stress models

Eldik

Haan

Arends

et al. 2020

Journal of Personality

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Objective This study aimed to contrast differential susceptibility and diathesis–stress models in examining adolescents' Big Five personality dimensions as moderators of longitudinal associations between interparental stress and (mal)adaptation in emerging adulthood (i.e., self‐efficacy, externalizing and internalizing behavior). Method Data from the large longitudinal Flemish Study on Parenting, Personality and Development were used (475 families, adolescents' Mage = 15.82, SDage = 1.15), with both parents reporting on their interparental stress and mothers reporting on the adolescent's personality and in 2009, and emerging adults reporting on their own (mal)adaptive functioning in 2009 and 2015 and their personality in 2015. Results Multivariate models showed that extraversion, benevolence, emotional stability and imagination were uniquely related to (mal)adaptation across the 6‐year interval. In general, our results exhibited no consistent moderating role for adolescents' personality. Only for girls, high levels of extraversion functioned as a “susceptibility maker” in associations between father's interparental stress and self‐efficacy, and, low levels of emotional stability functioned as a “vulnerability marker” in associations between parents' interparental stress and self‐efficacy. Conclusions The interaction effects as well as their (restricted) generalizability across gender should be replicated before drawing firm conclusions. Adolescents' personality characteristics were important predictors of (mal)adaptation during the transition into emerging adulthood.

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“…Temperament traits such as negative emotionality and behavioral inhibition have been linked to both attention biases to threat and IPC in childhood (Hentges et al, 2015; Lonigan et al, 2004; Pérez‐Edgar et al, 2010; Schermerhorn, 2018), but hardly any research has explored how both effortful control and anxiety contribute to youth's threat appraisals. Higher effortful control in young children may reduce the risk for developing externalizing problems due to decreased angry reactivity to IPC (Thompson et al, 2020). However, to our knowledge, this is the first study to examine how effortful control, anxiety, and threat appraisals operate together in the family context for adolescents.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The cognitive biases to threat literature has predominantly focused on microlevel attention processes, which include threat encoding, processing, and appraisal (Koster et al, 2006;Mogg et al, 2004). Recent findings in the family literature demonstrate that negative martial conflict is associated with higher adolescent anxiety only for adolescents with a bias toward angry interpersonal interactions (assessed via eye-tracking; Lucas- Thompson et al, 2020). Although broader-level cognitive threat appraisals cannot directly map on these microlevel threat biases that can occur on the order of milliseconds, they may be conceptually related.…”

Section: Individual Characteristics As Contextual Factors For Threat ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraindividual differences in adolescent threat appraisals and anxiety associated with Interparental conflict

MacNeill

Fosco

2021

J of Marriage and Family

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Objective This study examined within‐ and between‐person associations among interparental conflict (IPC), threat appraisals, temperament, and anxiety to evaluate how these risk processes unfold at the daily level in adolescence. Background Adolescence is a developmental period of increased risk for anxiety, and exposure to IPC in the home elevates this risk. Specifically, adolescents who perceive IPC as threatening are at particularly high risk for anxiety, yet less is known about how characteristics of the adolescent (temperamental effortful control and dispositional levels of anxiety), as well as characteristics of the family (usual IPC), may temper this risk pathway. Method The sample included 151 adolescents and their caregivers who completed baseline surveys and 21 daily surveys. Longitudinal mixed models were used to test within‐ and between‐person associations between IPC and threat appraisals, and threat appraisals and anxious mood, including moderators of effortful control, dispositional anxiety, and usual IPC. Results On days when IPC was higher than usual adolescents perceived more threat, and on days when adolescents perceived more threat they had higher levels of anxious mood. Within‐person links between IPC and threat appraisals were moderated by usual IPC and adolescent dispositional anxiety levels. The within‐person link between situational threat and anxious mood was moderated by dispositional anxiety levels. Conclusion The results underscore the importance of considering individual differences in within‐person effects of IPC and threat appraisals on adolescent daily anxiety.

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Understanding how and why effortful control moderates children’s vulnerability to interparental conflict.

Cited by 14 publications

References 73 publications

The moderating effect of marital conflict on the relationship between social avoidance and socio-emotional functioning among young children in suburban China

The moderating effect of marital conflict on the relationship between social avoidance and socio-emotional functioning among young children in suburban China

Moderation of associations between interparental stress and (mal)adaptation by adolescents' personality: Contrasting differential susceptibility and diathesis–stress models

Intraindividual differences in adolescent threat appraisals and anxiety associated with Interparental conflict

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