title: Parental conflict resolution styles and children's adjustment: children's appraisals and emotion regulation as mediators.
abstract: Guided by the emotional security hypothesis and the cognitive-contextual framework, the authors investigated whether the associations between negative parental conflict resolution styles and children's internalizing and externalizing problems were mediated by children's appraisals of threat and self-blame and their emotion regulation. Participants were 192 Swiss 2-parent families with children aged 9-12 years (M age = 10.62 years, SD = 0.41 years). Structural equation modeling was used to test the empirical validity of the theoretical model. Results indicated that children's maladaptive emotion regulation mediated the association between negative parental conflict resolution styles and children's internalizing as well as externalizing problems. Whereas perceived threat was related only to children's internalizing problems, self-blame did not mediate the links between negative parental conflict resolution styles and children's adjustment. Implications for understanding the mechanisms by which exposure to interparental conflict could lead to children's maladjustment and limitations of the study are discussed.
authors: University of Basel, Department of Psychology, Missionsstrasse 62a, 4055 Basel, Switzerland. a.siffert@gmx.net
authors: Andrea
authors: A
authors: Siffert
authors: Beate
authors: B
authors: Schwarz
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D019955:Conduct Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions; D054541:Family Conflict / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006167:Guilt; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009769:Object Attachment; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D010553:Personality Development; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011340:Problem Solving; D012917:Social Adjustment; D013557:Switzerland