Marital violence, co-parenting, and family-level processes in relation to children's adjustment.
A multimethod approach was used to examine relations between marital violence, coparenting, and family-level processes and children's adjustment in a community-based sample of marital violence. Two hypotheses were tested, one in which family-level and co-parenting processes mediate relations between marital violence and child functioning and one in which marital violence and family-level/co-parenting processes function relatively independently in influencing children's adjustment. Observations of family processes were made within a triadic parent-child interaction, and several dimensions of children's socioemotional adjustment (i.e., peer relations, behavior problems) were examined. Results indicated that hostile-withdrawn co-parenting mediated the relations between marital violence and children's anxiety and depression. Marital violence, co-parenting, and family-level processes also functioned independently in predicting child outcome. Findings are discussed in terms of the family dynamics present in maritally violent homes.
Katz
Lynn Fainsilber
LF
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, 98195, USA. katzlf@u.washington.edu
Low
Sabina M
SM
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D010379:Peer Group; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000523:psychology*