Children's Expectations of Parent-Child Communication Following Interparental Conflict: Do Parents Talk to Children About Conflict?

• NCJ Number: 219735
• Journal: Journal of Family Violence Volume: 22 Issue: 6 Dated: August 2007 Pages: 407-412
• Author(s): Amy M. Brown; Monica M. Fitzgerald; Kimberly Shipman; Renee Schneider
• Date Published: August 2007
• Length: 6 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined parent-child communication about interparental conflict and its relationship to children's psychological functioning.

Abstract

The study's findings suggest that the fact and quality of parent-child communication about interparental conflict may be an important predictor of children's behavioral and emotional adjustment. As hypothesized, children who expected their mothers to initiate discussion with them about hypothetical interparental conflict scenarios were more likely to initiate discussions with their mothers. Less than half of the children reported that their mothers would be "a whole lot" likely to initiate discussions about the conflict, and even fewer of the children reported being likely to initiate discussion with their mothers. Less than half of the children expected a validating response (empathy, warmth) from their mothers, and one-third of the children expected an invalidating response (criticism, minimization). Results also indicated that children who expected validating responses were more likely to initiate discussions. This finding supports research which has shown that parental support fosters parent-child communication. Children who expected validating responses during parent-child communication about interparental conflict had fewer problem behaviors. Children who expected invalidating responses had higher levels of problem behaviors. Trends were also noted for links between both maternal validation and invalidation and children's emotional problems. Seventy-five children (30 boys and 45 females) between 6 and 12 years old and their mothers were recruited from community programs. Participants were predominantly African-Americans of low socioeconomic status. Children listened to an unresolved interparental conflict and answered questions about the frequency and content of mother-child communication as if the conflict had occurred in their home. Descriptions of mother-initiated and child-initiated discussions were provided in detail. 25 references