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Capturing Children's Response to Parental Conflict and Making Use of It
Abstract
To read this article's abstract in both Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, please visit the article's full-text page on Wiley InterScience (http://interscience.wiley.com/journal/famp). The aim of our study is to examine the interface between children's physiological changes and the specificities of parental conflict, and to develop a procedure in which such information can be shared with the family for therapeutic change. Children from 20 families were exposed to parental conflict discussion (CD) while their arousals were measured through skin conductance and heart rate sensors. It was found that regardless of the subject of the argument, 80% of the time they were complaining about each other. Likewise, 80% of the time the children were responding to the parents' own interpersonal tension, including moments of silence. The protocol established for the study, consisting of CD and debriefing, was found to be a powerful tool in moving parents toward conflict resolution.
... Assessment protocol. All the new cases recruited for this project would go through our Family Biofeedback Assessment protocol, which was established in previous studies to elicit children's responses to parental dynamics (Lee, Ng, Cheung and Yung, 2010). The protocol involved a two-part procedure. ...
... This can be seen as explaining why the 10-year-old boy described above considered his family to be more important to him than going to school. Such yearning for family bonds or a sense of belonging was a dominant theme in our previous study with children and their parents (Lee, Ng, Cheung and Yung, 2010). This was also evident in our current data, except that these bonds were extended to the entire family system, including the grandparents. ...
... In our work measuring children's physiological arousal to parental conflict, we had found that 80 per cent of the time the children's physiological arousal was closely related to their parents' relational difficulties (Lee, Ng, Cheung and Yung, 2010). When we tried to apply the same measure to adult children, such as this man, the findings corresponded with that of younger children. ...
Building on Lieberman’s Transgenerational theory (1979), which posited that many inexplicable family problems could be traced to unresolved conflicts arising from clashes between cultural differences across generations, forty multi‐generation families that have been treated with either a child, an adult, or a member from the older generation as symptom bearers were reviewed in this project. This paper is a discussion of the findings obtained from exploring these presenting symptoms from the perspective of transgenerational dynamics, and a presentation of a treatment approach in working transgenerationally. In addition to family histories, we also focused in this work on the importance of working with problematic interpersonal patterns across generations in order to negotiate a more satisfactory and developmentally appropriate boundary between subsystems. Analysis of clinical data with Chinese families shows that many individual mental health problems can reflect unresolved conflict in transgenerational relationships Transgenerational theory is useful in helping us understand the link between generations Along with structural family therapy theory this enables members of multi‐generations to negotiate a developmentally appropriate pattern between subsystems Using biofeedback in a family assessment protocol to elicit children’s responses to parental conflict helps link repeated patterns transmitted transgenerationally
... Wai-Yung Lee et al. (2010) 4 investigated the interrelation between children's physiological responses and parental conflicts and developed a procedure to share such information with the family to induce therapeutic change. In family therapy using biofeedback, a protocol consisting of parental conflict discussion and debriefing was appraised as a powerful tool for resolving marital conflict. ...
... Wai-Yung Lee et al. (2010) 4 investigated the interrelation between children's physiological responses and parental conflicts and developed a procedure to share such information with the family to induce therapeutic change. In family therapy using biofeedback, a protocol consisting of parental conflict discussion and debriefing was appraised as a powerful tool for resolving marital conflict. ...
A psychological assessment using biofeedback was performed for an adjustment disorder inpatient who showed less verbal and non‐verbal expressions, and experienced difficulty in receiving favorable results from treatment. The assessment revealed hidden problems behind the symptoms. She was subsequently discharged, after which no clinical intervention was required, including medication. A psychological assessment using biofeedback was performed for an adjustment disorder inpatient who showed less verbal and non‐verbal expressions, and experienced difficulty in receiving favorable results from treatment. The assessment revealed hidden problems behind the symptoms. She was subsequently discharged, after which no clinical intervention was required, including medication.
... Second, the findings that parents' marital conflicts contributed to adolescents' school refusal coincided with Bowen's triangulation theory (31). This result suggested that Chinese teenagers' school absenteeism may be triangulated with the marital conflicts of parents (34). The emergence of this subtheme also partially verified the conclusions of previous research that children involved in parental marital conflicts have poorer academic performance (35). ...
Objective: Although, there has been a growing number of studies on school refusal in Western cultures, the underlying factors that contribute to school refusal in Chinese adolescents remain unclear. This study aimed to better understand why Chinese adolescents refuse to go to school and to further interpret what they want to express through their school refusal behaviors.
Methods: We performed a qualitative study using an interpretative phenomenological analysis. Twenty adolescents with school refusal experiences were recruited from the clinical psychology department of two mental health hospitals in Shanghai, China. They participated in semistructured, face-to-face in-depth interviews. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed according to the guidelines of interpretative phenomenological analysis.
Findings: Five main superordinate themes emerged from data analysis: (a) competition-oriented social environment; (b) family living space dominated by conflicts; (c) personal living space lacking meaningful support; (d) conflict between the pros and cons of being labeled with a psychiatric diagnosis; and (e) reintegration in school life.
Conclusions: Our analysis emphasized the complex interacting effects of the social environment, family interpersonal conflicts, personal psychological factors and mental health complaints on the development and maintenance of Chinese adolescents' school refusal. These factors contributed to school refusal at each level and influenced each other's effects on school refusal behaviors. Therefore, interventions for Chinese teenagers with school refusal may need to integrate strategies that inspire reorganization and changes in different ecosystems, such as strategies related to government policy, peer relationships, family systems and individual inner dynamics.
... Early family therapy practice was distinguished by a willingness to embrace new technologies (tape recorder, film camera, one-way screen), and some in the profession continue to innovate (e.g. Lee et al., 2010;McHugh et al., 2010;Tourunen et al., 2020). However, prior to COVID-19 this mantle had largely been handed on to others; the use of virtual realities (VR) to help with social anxiety and 'avatar therapy' for psychosis are perhaps the best-known recent examples of this (see Aali et al., 2020 for a review). ...
Following the COVID‐19 pandemic, psychological therapies rapidly moved online in mid‐2020. The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice in the UK (AFT) surveyed the attitudes and practices of systemic therapists in the UK in early October 2020, exploring members’ views and gathered information about ongoing needs. A sample of 312 people were included in a mixed methods analysis. In total, 65% of respondents felt their overall experience of using online video technology professionally was positive, further reflected in responses to two open‐ended questions. Detailed thematic analysis revealed that many positive comments were related to the practical advantages of online working, whilst many negative comments were related to technique and the therapeutic relationship. Possible respondent biases are discussed, and the implications of this change in practice are explored. It remains to be seen if this marks the beginning of a more permanent shift in our field as we explore the potential of new technologies.
Practitioner Points
• The vast majority of UK systemic therapists felt that their experience of online video technology was positive.
• They noted many practical advantages but also identified many challenges regarding therapeutic techniques and the therapeutic relationship.
• Therapists developed a range of creative solutions to maximise the therapeutic opportunities of online video.
... This appears to be the result of perceived empathy and social capital as a caring "pet person" and mutual concerns regarding the influence of conflict on the pet's behavior and mental health. Much like parents are often advised not to argue in front of children due to the potential consequences on the child's mental health and behavior (see Lee Ng, Cheung, & Yung, 2010, for a review and case study), pet parents inherently apply this same advice to their relationship when parenting pets. ...
... In child custody issues, the parties involved might project unresolved feelings about their ex-spouses onto negotiations concerning children, ensnaring children in parental disputes. In fact, this pattern of family interaction, in which children are drawn into the parental conflict, is common in Chinese culture (Lee, Ng, Cheung, & Yun, 2010). To minimize this risk, mediators should provide plenty of time and space for the parties to express their emotions and concerns through an open, organized, and rational communication process. ...
This study draws on survey data from 205 family mediation service users concerning their satisfaction with the outcomes of mediation to address two research questions: (a) how satisfied are service users? and (b) what factors account for users' satisfaction with the outcome of child custody arrangements and the allocation of finances and property? Overall, users' level of satisfaction with outcomes was high. While the mediation process explained a significant variance in satisfaction with the outcomes for child custody and for finances and property, the mediator's perceived professional competence did not predict user satisfaction with the outcomes for either issue. This study contributes to our knowledge on the significance of mediators' process skill, specifically their calm and clear responses to the socioemotional needs of the mediated parties, on the service outcomes for both types of dispute. The implications for mediation training are discussed.
... Our first study involved 20 children aged 6 to 15 years. This study aimed to first capture the physiological response of these children while they were exposed to parental discourse and then use these arousal scores to elicit the children's voices for therapeutic intervention (Lee, Ng, Cheung, & Yung, 2010). A protocol was developed for this study in which parents were first asked to discuss between themselves things that they had not reached an agreement on for half an hour. ...
... There is compelling evidence in Western societies to support the treatment efficacy of family therapy for different mental health problems such as anorexia nervosa (Dare et al. 1990), parental depression (Van Parys and Rober 2013), schizophrenia and the co-occurring psychotic and substance use disorders (Gottlieb et al. 2012). Clinical evidence also suggests the use of a cross-cultural adaptation of family therapy for helping Chinese people suffering from substance abuse (Sim 2007), anorexia nervosa (Ma 2011), and schizophrenia (Kwong 2010), and for helping families of children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral problems (Lee et al. 2010). ...
This paper reports the results of an evaluation study, which assessed the changes in knowledge and skills of psychiatric nurses after they had attended a training course in family therapy in Hong Kong. Systemically based and strengths oriented, the 49-h training comprises three modules which include lectures, sensitivity training, clinical observation and clinical supervision. Seventeen out of 24 psychiatric nurses participated in a panel study after they had attended the course. Data were gathered using a structured questionnaire during three phases: pre-training (time 1), completion of module I (time 2) and completion of module III (time 3). The results of an ANOVA have shown that the training had a significant positive effect on the psychiatric nurses’ knowledge, skills and attitudes from time 1 to time 2. The nurses’ mean scores in these three areas continued to increase respectively, though the changes in the two mean scores from the questionnaires at time 2 and time 3 were statistically insignificant. Implications for future training and promoting the family-centered approach in mental health services are discussed.
... Yapilan deneysel bir çah §mada, çocukiarm, anne ve baba arasindaki çati §mayi izlerken yarim saate varan fiziksel uyarimlar ya §adiklari ve sözel olarak ifade etmeseler de anne baba arasindaki çatiçmadan olumsuz etkilendikleri bulunmu §tur (21). Çiddet magduru, depresif ve ice çekilmi § anneler, çocukiarmi duygusal acidan besleyemediklerinden, çocuklarmda ice yönelim sorunlari geli §mektedir (22). ...
Aim: This study was performed to determine the frequency of physical violence and to be exposed the opinion, attitude and behaviors of the primary education students about the physical violence. Material and Method: All of the primary education schools were included the study at Mardin Province Center. Whole fifth and eigth class of the schools were chosen randomized and questionnaire was applied to 1351 students. Results: 50.6% of girls and 49.4% are boys. The mean age was 11.9, counts of people who lives their home was 7, average child count was 3 of the students. The 13.1% of the students were expressed that their mother was beaten by their fathers. The 42.6% of the students were exposed to violence even a time of all their whole life; the 30.7% of them were still exposed to violence from time to time. The physical violence rate of the boys are more than the girls (p<0.01). The violence rate applied to children reduce with their classes, that they educated in (p<0.01), and fathers' educational situation advanced (p<0.01). Children exposed to violence higher that lives in their family in which present the domestic violence (p<0.01). The 15.7% of the students are still carrying on fight that includes physical violence, 5.0% of them consider that the violence is a solution. Conclusions: The rate of the violence that exposed and considering the violence is very common. For that reason, inside of the basic health service supply; child exploitation and neglect attach importance for at primary, secondary and tertiary prevention studies, official and volunteer organizations must study together multidisciplinary for solving the problem, the programs must supported with legal arrangements and take part at government policies.
... Yapılan deneysel bir çalışmada, çocukların, anne ve baba arasındaki çatışmayı izlerken yarım saate varan fiziksel uyarımlar yaşadıkları ve sözel olarak ifade etmeseler de anne baba arasındaki çatışmadan olumsuz etkilendikleri bulunmuştur (21). Şiddet mağduru, depresif ve içe çekilmiş anneler, çocuklarını duygusal açıdan besleyemediklerinden, çocuklarında içe yönelim sorunları gelişmektedir (22). ...
... In the era of accountability, family therapists have to demonstrate the treatment effectiveness and efficacy to different stakeholders including the families we served, the funding body and the public. In the past decade, applicability of family therapy for different mental health problems such as substance abuse (Sim 2007), anorexia nervosa (Ma 2011), children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral problems (Lee et al. 2010) and schizophrenia (Kwong 2010) were documented. ...
This paper provides an insight into the development and growth of family therapy in Hong Kong. Family therapy was introduced in Hong Kong in the early 1980s and is now gaining ground. The authors give a historical account of the development of family therapy in Hong Kong, and report on its progress and achievement for the past three decades there. The field has gone through several stages of development. The 1980s were marked by an importation of Western family therapy models, during which overseas expertise was tapped to promote family therapy. The 1990s were characterized by a blossoming of different schools of family therapy on the local scene. Most schools established their own practice centers, and training packages were tailor-made for local use. The 2000s were an important era of family therapy development in Hong Kong. The field has nurtured a new generation of leaders (both academics and front-line practitioners and trainers) who play an essential role in advancing its development. The paper concludes by identifying problems in clinical practice, professional training, and research and knowledge development, and proposes ways of overcoming these difficulties.
... Although many clinicians consider failed bids for connection and subsequent loneliness as a major and universal source of marital conflict (Gottman & Driver, 2005), there is little information about specific transactional patterns related to this yearning among Asian couples. In their work on children's response to parental conflict (Lee, Ng, Cheung, & Yung, 2010), the Hong Kong investigators observed that couples often fail to obtain satisfactory responses in their attempts to reach out to each other, resulting in a crisscross of monologues that escalated into negativity and frustration. On reflection, the Hong Kong team had no idea if similar or different patterns occur among couples from other Asian regionsso they sought dialogue with colleagues from other regions to explore the question further. ...
The purpose of this study was to explore variations in how contemporary couples from five different Asian regions negotiate disagreements. Video recordings of 50 couples (10 each from Japan, Korea, Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong) discussing unresolved disagreements provided raw data for quantitative and qualitative analyses. First, teams of coders from each region used a common protocol to make quantitative ratings of content themes and interaction patterns for couples from their own region. An interregional panel of investigators then performed in-depth qualitative reviews for half of these cases, noting cultural differences not only in observed patterns of couple behavior but also in their own perceptions of these patterns. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed clear regional differences on dimensions such as overt negativity, demand-withdraw interaction, and collaboration. The qualitative results also provided a richer, more nuanced view of other (e.g., gender-linked) conflict management patterns that the quantitative analyses did not capture. Inconsistencies between qualitative and quantitative data and between the qualitative observations of investigators from different regions were most pronounced for couples from Korea and Japan, whose conflict styles were subtler and less direct than those of couples from the other regions.
... Thinking in triads is key to understanding our data and the basis for a grounded theory of triangulation that explains client, caregiver, and service provider interactions. Triadic thinking, typically associated with within-family dynamics, is a common feature of research and practice in family therapy (Imber Coopersmith, 1985;Lee, Ng, Cheung, & Wayung, 2010). Bowen's (1978) description of triangulation in family systems is of two parties that are aligned but, because of conflict or need, position a third party in their interactions. ...
Five patterns of service provider-caregiver-adolescent interaction are discussed using qualitative interviews and file review data from 44 youth with complex needs who were clients of more than one psychosocial service (child welfare, mental health, addictions, juvenile justice, and special education). Findings show that young people and their families become triangulated with service providers, either engaging with, or resisting, interventions. For young people with complex needs involved with multiple service providers, both positive and negative patterns of interaction contribute to the complexity of caregiver-child interactions. According to young people themselves, the most functional of these patterns, empowerment, was experienced as protective when it helped them to meet their personal needs and enhance communication. In contrast, four problematic patterns produced triangulations described as conflictual or unsupportive. The implications of these patterns for family therapy are discussed with an emphasis on the therapist as both clinician and advocate for better services from multiple providers.
Based on a dataset, this paper examines the link between children’s presenting problems and interparental relationships. The clinical discussion focuses specifically on the impact of parental relationship on mental illness. Using a protocol to measure both the physiological and verbal responses of the patients, it is observed that regardless of the psychiatric diagnoses given to these children or young adults, almost all of them were deeply involved in their parents’ unresolved relational conflict. In the five case scenarios provided for illustration, the patients could articulate very clearly how concerned they were when they sensed their parent's relationship was at risk, and how their symptoms had served a function in maintaining the family equilibrium. Based on this clinical observation, it is important to develop a treatment approach that addresses mental illness in the family context.
Volgens de Transgenerationele theorie (1979) van Lieberman kunnen veel onverklaarbare gezinsproblemen worden teruggevoerd naar onopgeloste conflicten die een gevolg zijn van botsende cultuurverschillen tussen de generaties. Vanuit deze theorie keken we naar veertig multigenerationele gezinnen die therapie kregen voor een kind, volwassene of een ouder gezinslid (mogelijke symptoomhouders). In dit artikel bespreken we een onderzoek naar de symptomen, vanuit het perspectief van de transgenerationele dynamiek en transgenerationele therapie. We richtten ons hierbij op de familiegeschiedenis en behandeling van interpersoonlijke generatieproblemen, met als doel dat voortaan betere en meer bevredigende grenzen tussen de familiale subsystemen worden getrokken.
Drawing on fieldwork conducted in a clinical setting in China, this article makes a contribution to the special issue’s examination of the ambiguity of kinship’s mutuality by engaging systemic family therapy. Family therapists are no strangers to the negative in family life. ‘We-ness’ could be a suffocating embrace and potentially the nourishing condition for even the most severe of psychiatric diagnoses. While practitioners understand the purpose of treatment in terms ‘individuation’, I argue for seeing family therapy as a technology of kin therapeutics for working on relational tangles that have caused someone to take responsibility for something she or he cannot control. While systemic therapy may appear to valorise a self-determined, rational subject, I highlight instead what practitioners themselves know all too well – that human lives are interconnected, and I underscore the existential import of their concern for the entangled adolescent therapeutic action works to set ‘free’.
In this study, we evaluated 275 empirical studies from Journal of Marital and Family Therapy and Family Process from 2010 to 2015 on their use of theory, and compared our findings to those of a similar previous analysis (Hawley & Geske, 2000). Overall, theory seems to have become much better incorporated in empirical family therapy research, with only 16.4% of the articles not using theory in either their introductory or discussion sections. Theory appeared better incorporated in the introductory sections than in the discussion sections. Systems theory remained the most commonly used conceptual framework, followed by attachment theory. We discuss areas for improving theory incorporation in family therapy research, and offer suggestions for both family therapy researchers and educators.
This paper presents research exploring primary school teachers’ perceptions and experiences of supporting children exposed to domestic abuse in one Local Authority. A two-phase sequential mixed methods design was adopted to address three research questions. Questionnaire findings suggested that there was a significant difference between teachers who had attended training and those who had not, in their confidence levels in: (a) responding to disclosures; and (b) recognising whether a child was exposed to domestic abuse (N=165).
Semi-structured interviews, analysed using thematic analysis were then carried out with teachers who had experience of teaching children exposed to domestic abuse (N=8). Themes were identified which explored: the emotional factors of the role of teachers; working within the school system; the relationship with the child and family; and uncertainty about what teachers need to know. Those interviewed expressed an anxiety about false accusations within the teaching role and the perceived lack of protection in school systems. This seemed to heighten fears of becoming involved in child protection cases (such as where there is domestic abuse) and the uncertainty and stress that teachers felt about this.
The paper concludes by considering the role of educational psychologists in providing training for teachers on managing and understanding emotional factors arising from their role. It also presents further research and policy opportunities to apply psychology in order to better understand the complexities that teachers are experiencing when supporting children exposed to domestic abuse.
Bullying is a socially and culturally complex phenomenon that until now has largely been understood in the context of the individual. This book challenges the dominance of this approach, examining the processes of extreme exclusion that are enacted in bullying - whether at school, through face-to-face meetings or virtual encounters - in the context of group dynamics. Contributors draw upon qualitative empirical studies, mixed methods and statistics, to analyse the elements that allow bullying to emerge - the processes that produce exclusion and contempt, and the relations between children, teachers and parents. Introducing a new definition of bullying, this book goes on to discuss directions for future research and action, including more informed intervention strategies and re-thinking methods of prevention. Exploring bullying in the light of the latest research from a wide variety of disciplines, this book paves the way for a new paradigm through which to understand the field.
I reflect here on Family Therapy's origins, our present dilemmas, and future possibilities. Using the lens of training new Family Therapists for current public sector domains, I examine our field's strengths, vulnerabilities, and contradictions. I critique the current vogue of model certainty and branding. Our responsibilities to trainees, young practitioners, and the families we serve are highlighted.I reflect here on Family Therapy's origins, our present dilemmas, and future possibilities. Using the lens of training new Family Therapists for current public sector domains, I examine our field's strengths, vulnerabilities, and contradictions. I critique the current vogue of model certainty and branding. Our responsibilities to trainees, young practitioners, and the families we serve are highlighted.在此,我回顾了家庭心理治疗的起源, 思考我们目前面临的困境和未来的可能性. 通过为当前的公共领域培养新的家庭心理治疗师, 我探讨了该领域的长处,弱点和矛盾.我批判了当前模式确定化和品牌化的趋势, 强调了我们对被培训者,年轻治疗师及我们所服务的家庭的责任.
Associations between family functioning and children's stress hormone levels are explored, by examining how aspects of the interparental relationship (parents' marital satisfaction and parent conflict styles), the mother—child relationship (maternal involvement and warmth) and maternal emotional functioning (depression, anxiety and self-esteem) relate to children's cortisol levels. Parents of 63 children (32 kindergarten-aged children, 31 adolescents) completed questionnaires regarding family and individual functioning, and children's salivary cortisol samples were collected on two consecutive weekdays at home immediately upon waking and at bedtime, such that wakeup, bedtime and average levels and the slope of their diurnal cortisol rhythms could be estimated. Higher marital functioning was significantly and independently associated with lower child cortisol levels (average levels and wakeup levels), while maternal parenting quality and emotional functioning were not significant when included in the same regression model. Associations between parents' marital functioning and children's bedtime cortisol levels and diurnal slopes were moderated by child age, with higher parent marital functioning being associated with a significantly greater lowering of bedtime levels and steeper diurnal slopes for kindergarten-aged children as compared to adolescents. Higher maternal parenting quality was found to be significantly related to steeper diurnal cortisol rhythms.
Reports an investigation of the effects of marital discord on the peer interactions and physical health of preschool children. A sample of families that ranged widely in marital satisfaction and had a 4- to 5-yr-old child participated in several home and laboratory sessions involving marital, parent-child, and peer (with a best friend) interaction. Obtained observational, self-report, and physiological indices. Hypothesized that the ability to regulate emotion would be disrupted in children from maritally distressed homes and that this would result in poor child outcomes. Found support for a path-analytic model correlating the child outcomes of the child's level of play, negative peer interaction, and physical health, using marital satisfaction, the parents' physiology during marital interaction, observations of parent–child interaction, the child's physiology during parent–child interaction, indices of emotion during the directed facial action task, and urinary assays of catecholamine endocrine variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In 1989, Gottman and Krokoff introduced the Specific Af- fect Coding System (SPAFF) for the purpose of systemati- cally observing affective behavior in the context of marital conflict. The original SPAFF conferred a host of advantages over earlier “microanalytic” coding strategies, the primary innovation being the ability to code affect at the construct level instead of at the level of extremely discrete bits of be- havior, such as specific gestures or facial movements (Gott- man, McCoy, Coan, & Collier, 1995).
Emotional, cognitive, and family systems processes have been identified as mediators of the association between interparental conflict and children's adjustment. However, little is known about how they function in relation to one another because they have not all been assessed in the same study. This investigation examined the relations among children's exposure to parental conflict, their appraisals of threat and blame, their emotional reaction, and triangulation into parental disagreements. One hundred fifty ethnically diverse 8- to 12-year-old children and both of their parents participated in the study. Comparisons of 3 models proposing different relations among these processes indicated that they function as parallel and independent mediators of children's adjustment. Specifically, children's self-blaming attributions and emotional distress were uniquely associated with both internalizing and externalizing problems, whereas perceived threat uniquely predicted internalizing problems and triangulation uniquely predicted externalizing problems.
An emotional security hypothesis that builds on attachment theory is proposed to account for recent empirical findings on the impact of marital conflict on children and to provide directions for future research. Children's concerns about emotional security play a role in their regulation of emotional arousal and organization and in their motivation to respond in the face of marital conflict. Over time these response processes and internalized representations of parental relations that develop have implications for children's long-term adjustment. Emotional security is seen as a product of past experiences with marital conflict and as a primary influence on future responding. The impact and interaction of other experiential histories within the family that affect children's emotional security are also examined, with a focus on parent-child relations.
Twenty-nine married couples engaged in 2 videotaped discussions: 1 in which the husband requested a change in the wife and 1 in which the wife requested a change in the husband. Conflict behavior was assessed by self-report and observer ratings. Neither conflict structure (who requested the change) nor gender was associated with the positivity or negativity of spouses' behavior. During discussions of husbands' issues, wives and husbands did not differ in demand/withdraw behavior, whereas when discussing wives' issues, wives were more demanding and husbands were more withdrawing. Husband-demand/wife-withdraw interaction predicted an increase in wives' satisfaction 1 year later, whereas wife-demand/husband-withdraw interaction predicted a decline in wives' satisfaction 1 year later. These results replicate and extend those of our earlier study (Christensen & Heavey, 1990).
Examined several protective mechanisms that may reduce deleterious correlates of marital conflict and marital dissolution in young children. One set of potential buffers focused on parent-child interaction: parental warmth, parental scaffolding/praise, and inhibition of parental rejection. As a second set of potential buffers, each parent was interviewed about their "meta-emotion philosophy"--that is, their feelings about their own emotions, and their attitudes and responses to their children's anger and sadness. The third set of potential buffers concerned intraindividual characteristics of the child, including the child's intelligence and regulatory physiology (basal vagal tone and vagal suppression). Fifty-six families with a preschool child were studied at two time points: when the children were 5 years old (Time 1) and again when the children were 8 years old (Time 2). At Time 1, naturalistic observations of marital and parent-child interaction were conducted and assessment of child regulatory physiology was obtained through measures of basal vagal tone and suppression of vagal tone. Parents were also interviewed individually about their feelings about their own and their children's emotions, and children's intelligence was assessed. At Time 2, assessment of child outcomes were obtained, including observations of peer interaction, mother ratings of behavior problems and mother and teacher ratings of peer aggression, mother ratings of child physical illness, and measures of achievement. Results indicated that all Time 1 buffering factors protected children in face of marital conflict and dissolution.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A harsh early family environment is related to mental and physical health in adulthood. An important question is why family environment in childhood is associated with these outcomes so long after its initial occurrence. We describe a program of research that evaluates a model linking these variables to each other. Specifically, we hypothesize that low social competence and negative emotional states may mediate relations between a harsh early family environment and physiological/neuroendocrine responses to stress, as well as long-term health outcomes. We report evidence that the model characterizes self-rated health, cortisol responses to stress, and, in males only, elevated cardiovascular responses to stress. We discuss how the social context of early life (such as SES) may affect the family environment in ways that precipitate adverse health consequences. Perspectives on comorbidities in physical and mental health are discussed.
Twenty-nine married couples engaged in 2 videotaped discussions: 1 in which the husband requested a change in the wife and 1 in which the wife requested a change in the husband. Conflict behavior was assessed by self-report and observer ratings. Neither conflict structure (who requested the change) nor gender was associated with the positivity or negativity of spouses' behavior. During discussions of husbands' issues, wives and husbands did not differ in demand/withdraw behavior, whereas when discussing wives' issues, wives were more demanding and husbands were more withdrawing. Husband-demand/wife-withdraw interaction predicted an increase in wives' satisfaction 1 year later, whereas wife-demand/husband-withdraw interaction predicted a decline in wives' satisfaction 1 year later. These results replicate and extend those of our earlier study (Christensen & Heavey, 1990).
This study examined parents' past marital aggression as a (1) predictor of everyday marital conflict expressions, and (2) moderator of children's responses to marital conflict. In a laboratory setting, children watched their parents discuss an everyday topic of disagreement and then reported their own emotional and behavioral reactions, and rated their parents' conflict resolution. Controlling for current marital aggression, couples with higher levels of past marital aggression used less constructive and more destructive conflict tactics, and displayed less positive and more negative emotions. Children's responses to marital conflict were moderated by parents' past marital aggression: Children whose parents had been more maritally aggressive in the past were more sensitive to parents' use of constructive conflict tactics and positive emotions. Thus, controlling for current marital aggression, past interparental aggression had implications for both parents' everyday interparental conflict and children's responding to everyday marital conflict.
Children's responses to interadult conflict were examined as a function of degree of resolution of conflict. Children viewed videotaped segments of resolved (compromise, apology), partially resolved (submission, topic change), and unresolved (continued fighting, silent treatment) conflicts and were asked questions about their responses. For all ages (98 5–19 yr olds) and responses (perception of anger, children's own emotional responses, dispositions toward involvement), the relative negativity of children's responses closely corresponded to the degree that fights were unresolved. Numerous age and sex effects were found, including the unexpected finding that after age 10, anger elicited more sadness from boys than from girls. The results emphasize the importance of how fights end to children's coping with adult's anger. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Uses case studies to illustrate a theory of anorexia nervosa as a psychosomatic disease. The authors present a new diagnosis that places the locus of the illness not in the individual but in the family. The method requires the active involvement of the therapist as an agent of change within the family. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Minuchin, Rosman and Baker's (1978) Psychosomatic Families is widely cited as a demonstration that the physiological disturbance of some diabetic patients serves a function in their families. We found that the original data did not provide such a demonstration. We examined the psychosomatic family model in light of recent developments in the study and treatment of diabetes. We concluded that the model decontextualizes the family and assigns to it characteristics that are more appropriately seen as reflections of the disease process, the family coping tasks this entails, and the nature of the family's relationship with the health care system. The need for new open-systems models of the family's role in diabetes is discussed.
Physiological regulation, as indexed by baseline vagal tone and delta vagal tone (the change in vagal tone during an attention-demanding or challenging task), was examined as a moderator in the relations between exposure to verbal and physical parental marital conflict and children's adjustment and physical health. Higher vagal tone was posited to serve a protective function (i.e., buffer) for children exposed to higher levels of marital conflict. Seventy-five 8- to 12-year-olds and their mothers completed measures of parental conflict, and children's adjustment and physical health. Children's vagal tone was assessed during baseline conditions and during exposure to an audiotaped interadult argument. Results indicate that higher vagal tone buffered children against increased externalizing, internalizing, and health problems related to exposure to more frequent marital conflict, especially verbal conflict. Further, higher levels of delta vagal tone protected boys against externalizing problems associated with verbal conflict, and health problems associated with physical conflict.
This study examined the effects of gender and social structure on the demand/withdraw pattern of marital conflict. In this pattern, the demander, usually the woman, pressures the other through emotional requests, criticism, and complaints, and the withdrawer, usually the man, retreats through defensiveness and passive inaction. In this study, 31 couples were assessed in 2 conflict situations: 1 in which husband wanted a change in wife and 1 in which wife wanted a change in husband. Data from husbands, wives, and observers consistently revealed a significant main effect of gender (wife-demand/husband-withdraw interaction was more likely than husband-demand/wife-withdraw interaction) and a significant interaction of gender and conflict structure (wife-demand/husband-withdraw interaction was more likely than the reverse only when discussing a change the wife wanted). Separate analyses of demand and withdraw behaviors indicated that both husband and wife were more likely to be demanding when discussing a change they wanted and more likely to be withdrawing when discussing a change their partner wanted. However, men were overall more withdrawn than women, but women were not overall more demanding than men.
Cardiovascular, overt-motor, and verbal-reported responses to interadult emotional expressions, including anger, and to challenging task situations were examined in a sample of 49 10-14-year-old children of hypertensive (EH) and normotensive parents (NT). Sons of EH parents showed greater systolic blood pressure reactivity to interadult anger and to the digit span task than sons of NT parents. A consistent pattern was not found for girls. Marital distress and overt maternal anger expression predicted verbal-reported and overt-motor responses to interadult anger. Family history of EH and sex did not predict these responses. Implications include (a) heightened systolic blood pressure response to stress may be found in sons of EH parents before they are diagnosed to have EH disorders, (b) relations between family history of EH and cardiovascular response may be sex moderated, and (c) vulnerability to stress may be related to specific familial histories and backgrounds.
Children's appraisals of marital conflict were examined as moderators and mediators of conflict and children's adjustment, physical health, and physiological reactivity. Mothers completed measures of marital conflict and children's adjustment and physical health, and elementary school children provided information on their parents' marital conflict, appraisals of perceived threat and self-blame in relation to parents' conflicts, and their internalizing symptomatology. Children's heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and skin conductance response and level were examined during both a baseline and an interadult argument. Higher levels of both self-blame and perceived threat functioned as robust vulnerability factors for children exposed to higher levels of marital conflict in relation to internalizing behaviors, health problems, and higher levels of cardiovascular reactivity to the argument. Further, a higher level of perceived threat was a vulnerability factor for externalizing problems associated with exposure to marital conflict.
Mothers' and fathers' reports of marital conflicts in the home were obtained (n = 1,638 and 1,281 conflicts, respectively), including conflicts in front of the children (n = 580 and 377, respectively). Participants were 116 families with children 8 to 16 years old (M = 10.82 years, SD = 2.17; 58 boys, 58 girls). Children's emotional responses indicated distinctions between distressing conflict tactics (i.e., threat, personal insult, verbal hostility, defensiveness, nonverbal hostility, marital withdrawal, physical distress) and those that increased their emotional security (i.e., calm discussion, support, affection). Analyses based on cross-reporter informants of parental conflict and child responses strengthened confidence in the findings. Conflict tactics were related to marital functioning, and children's emotional reactions during marital conflicts were associated with their adjustment.
An early family environment marked by harsh parenting has been related to risk for multiple mental disorders in adulthood, risks that may be mediated, in part, by deficits in emotion regulation skills. This study examined neural mechanisms underlying these consequences of "risky" families (RF) by exploring neural activity to tasks involving responses to emotional stimuli.
Participants completed an assessment of RF and participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) investigation that examined 1) amygdala reactivity to observation of fearful/angry faces; 2) amygdala and right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (RVLPFC) reactivity to labeling emotions displayed in these faces; and 3) the relation between RVLPFC and amygdala activity during the labeling task.
Offspring from nonrisky families showed expected amygdala reactivity to observing fearful/angry faces and expected activation of RVLPFC while labeling the emotions, which was significantly negatively correlated (-.44) with amygdala activation. Offspring from risky families showed little amygdala activation during the observation task and a strong positive correlation (+.66) between RVLPFC and amygdala activation in the labeling task, suggesting a possible dysregulation in the neural systems involved in responses to emotional stimuli.
Offspring from risky families exhibit atypical responses to emotional stimuli that are evident at the neural level.
Advancing the process-oriented study of links between interparental discord and child adjustment, 2 multimethod prospective tests of emotional security as an explanatory mechanism are reported. On the basis of community samples, with waves spaced 2 years apart, Study 1 (113 boys and 113 girls, ages 9-18) identified emotional security as a mediator in a 2-wave test, whereas Study 2 (105 boys and 127 girls, ages 5-7) indicated emotional security as an intervening mechanism in a 3-wave test. Relations between discord and emotional security increased as children moved into adolescence in Study 1. Emotional security was identified as an explanatory mechanism for both internalizing and externalizing problems in children.
The stability of children's skin conductance level during baselines (SCL-B) and SCL reactivity (SCL-R) were examined longitudinally. During two laboratory sessions (T1 and T2), 2 years apart, children participated in procedures during which they were exposed to two stressors namely exposure to an audiotaped conflict between two adults, and a problem solving task. Children ranged in age between 6 and 13 years at T1. Measures of SCL-B and SCL-R during the two stressors were obtained. Findings illustrated the temporal stability of SCL-B and SCL-R to the star-tracing task over 2 years. Results also indicated stability in SCL-R to the two stressors (argument and problem-solving) examined within the same session at either T1 or T2. These results support the proposition that SCL-B and SCL-R constitute stable individual differences at the ages examined, and build on the scant longitudinal literature on psychophysiological development in children.
Skin conductance level reactivity (SCLR) was examined as a longitudinal mediator and moderator of relations between parental marital conflict and psychopathology among children and young adolescents. Participants were 157 boys and girls (M age at T1 = 9.31 years; SD = 1.97); there was a 2-year lag between T1 and T2 assessments. At T1, participants' SCLR was assessed in response to lab challenges. Parents completed measures of aggressive marital conflict and child adjustment at T1 and T2. Supportive of moderation effects, T1 marital conflict interacted with T1 SCLR and gender in the prediction of changes in maladjustment. The link between marital conflict and increased internalizing and externalizing symptoms was stronger for girls with higher SCLR than girls with lower SCLR. Marital conflict predicted increased externalizing behaviors for boys with lower SCLR but not higher SCLR, although levels of externalizing behaviors were similar among boys with lower and higher SCLR especially at higher levels of marital conflict. Findings build on the literature by illustrating the importance of examinations of both family risk and youth biological vulnerability for the prediction of psychopathology.
In a community sample of mothers (N = 763), each with a focal child aged 4.5 years, anxiety levels were high. Only 54% of mothers had anxiety scores within the "normal" Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) range, compared with 85% for depression. A subsample (N = 116) was selected for two-parent families, one to three children, and mothers spread over low, medium, and high anxiety levels. Mothers' anxiety was not significantly related to age, education, or work status, but rather to mothers' and fathers' independent ratings of marital satisfaction and family functioning, and to fathers' own anxiety and depression. Fathers' anxiety was related not to their own views of marital satisfaction and family functioning, but rather to mothers' views and to maternal anxiety. Assessments 8 years later--of anxiety, depression, and family functioning--showed high consistency over time, particularly maternal anxiety (r = .70) and paternal depression (r = .81). Although means did not change significantly over time for fathers, mothers' anxiety, depression, and perceptions of family functioning all improved (p < .001). For parents who were later to separate (compared with the others), initial family functioning, dyadic adjustment, and maternal anxiety were significantly "worse." The strongest predictor of later break-up was fathers' dyadic adjustment.
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