Marital conflict, emotional regulation, and the adjustment of children of alcoholics

Effects of marital conflict on children: recent advances and emerging themes in process-oriented research

BACKGROUND

The effects of marital conflict on children's adjustment are well documented. For the past decade research has increasingly focused on advancing a process-level understanding of these effects, that is, accounting for the particular responses and patterns embedded within specific contexts, histories, and developmental periods that account for children's outcomes over time.

METHODS

As a vehicle for presenting an update, this review follows the framework for process-oriented research initially proposed by Cummings and Cummings (1988), concentrating on recent research developments, and also considering new and emerging themes in this area of research.

RESULTS

In this regard, areas of advancement include (a) greater articulation of the effects of specific context/stimulus characteristics of marital conflict, (b) progress in identifying the psychological response processes in children (e.g., cognitive, emotional, social, physiological) that are affected and their possible role in accounting for relations between marital conflict and child outcomes, (c) greater understanding of the role of child characteristics, family history, and other contextual factors, including effects on children due to interrelations between marital conflict and parenting, and (d) advances in the conceptualization of children's outcomes, including that effects may be more productively viewed as dynamic processes of functioning rather than simply clinical diagnoses.

CONCLUSIONS

Understanding of the impact of marital conflict on children as a function of time-related processes remains a gap in a process-oriented conceptualization of effects. Based on this review, a revised model for a process-oriented approach on the effects of marital discord on children is proposed and suggestions are made for future research directions.

Parental problem drinking and children's adjustment: family conflict and parental depression as mediators and moderators of risk

We examined marital conflict, parent-child conflict, and maternal and paternal depression symptoms as mediators and moderators in the associations between fathers' and mothers' problem drinking and children's adjustment. A community sample of 6-12-year-old boys and girls and their mothers, fathers, and teachers participated. Marital conflict, parent-child conflict, and maternal depression symptomatology each functioned as a mediator of the association between father's problem drinking and children's externalizing and internalizing problems, and maternal depression symptoms accounted partially for the link between father's problem drinking and children's social problems. For mother's problem drinking, marital conflict, parent-child conflict, and maternal depression symptoms each mediated the association with children's externalizing problems. Further, parent-child conflict explained partially the link between mother's problem drinking and internalizing problems, and marital conflict accounted for the association between mother's problem drinking and social problems. When the mediators were simultaneously examined, parent-child conflict was the most robust mediator of the association between parental problem drinking and externalizing problems, and maternal depression symptomatology was the most consistent mediator of the relation between parental problem drinking and internalizing problems. Further, parent-child conflict and paternal and maternal depression symptoms each interacted with parental problem drinking to moderate some domains of children's adjustment. The significant moderation effects indicate that parent-child conflict is a robust vulnerability factor for internalizing problems.