Marital interaction in dyadic and triadic contexts: continuities and discontinuities.
While the systemic metaphor used in much current family research requires examination of the interrelationships among individuals, relationships, and the family as a whole, work on triadic relationships has generally been missing. This research examined the presence of second-order effects in marital interaction: changes in interactions between spouses when the husband-wife dyad became a parent-parent-child triad. Results indicated the presence of consistent context effects. Parental behavior when alone was not a good predictor of parental behavior in the presence of a child: behaviors occurred at significantly lower levels in parental dyads than in parent-parent-child triads, and correlations across the two contexts were less than consistent. Results are discussed in light of their implications for observations of families.
Deal
J E
JE
Department of Child Development and Family Science, North Dakota State University, Fargo 58105-5057, USA. jdeal@badlands.nodak.edu
Hagan
M S
MS
Bass
B
B
Hetherington
E M
EM
Clingempeel
G
G
D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology*; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009679:Nuclear Family / Q000523:psychology*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010332:Paternal Behavior; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology