title: Children's Appraisals and Involvement in Interparental Conflict: Do They Contribute Independently to Child Adjustment?
abstract: This study examines concurrent and prospective relations between children's threat and self-blame appraisals of interparental conflict, their involvement in interparental conflict, and their internalizing and externalizing problems. 539 children aged 7-10 years old and their mothers participated in the study. They completed 3 assessments spaced 6 months apart. At each assessment, children reported on their threat and self-blame appraisals of interparental conflict, their conflict involvement, and their internalizing and externalizing problems. Mothers also reported on children's internalizing and externalizing problems. In concurrent analyses, threat and self-blame appraisals and conflict involvement were each positively and independently associated with children's adjustment problems. Threat related more strongly to internalizing problems than to externalizing problems; self-blame related more strongly to externalizing problems than to internalizing problems. Threat appraisals were associated with children's adjustment problems prospectively, but self-blame appraisals and conflict involvement were not. Although threat and self-blame appraisals and conflict involvement may each contribute to children's concurrent adjustment problems, threat appraisals appear most salient to their future adjustment problems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Southern Methodist University, P.O. Box 750442, Dallas, TX, 75275-0442, USA.
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.forename: Ernest N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Jouriles
authors.forename: Renee
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rosenfield
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D054541:Family Conflict / Q000523:psychology*; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000066553:Problem Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012917:Social Adjustment