Marital Discord and Child Behavior Problems

Abstract

To date, specific mechanisms at work in the link between marital discord and children's problematic behavior remain unclear. In the present study, three types of variables—marital discord (nonconsensus and arguing-related stress), parent-child relationship quality (global quality and daily time spent together), and child interpersonal awareness (ability to infer emotions in social situations)—were used as predictors of children's social behavioral profiles in a sample of 45 5-year-olds. Regression analyses were conducted to assess the efficacy of a mediational model for predicting child behavior problems from marital discord. Evidence was found for indirect relations between marital discord and both social withdrawal and aggression: Marital discord predicted lower quality parent-child relationships, which, in turn, predicted high levels of child aggression. For child social withdrawal, the prediction from marital discord was mediated by both parent-child relationship quality and child interpersonal awareness.

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