Understanding children’s emotional processes and behavioral strategies in the context of marital conflict

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Abstract

Marital conflict is a distressing context in which children must regulate their emotion and behavior; however, the associations between the multidimensionality of conflict and children’s regulatory processes need to be examined. The current study examined differences in children’s (N = 207, mean age = 8.02 years) emotions (mad, sad, scared, and happy) and behavioral strategies to regulate conflict exposure during resolved, unresolved, escalating, and child-rearing marital conflict vignettes. Children’s cortisol levels were assessed in relation to child-rearing and resolved conflict vignettes. Anger and sadness were associated with escalating and child-rearing conflicts, fearfulness was related to escalating and unresolved conflicts, and happiness was associated with resolution. Anger was associated with children’s strategies to stop conflict, whereas sadness was associated with monitoring and avoidant strategies. Cortisol recovery moderated the link between fearfulness and behavioral regulation. These results highlight the importance of children’s emotions and regulatory processes in understanding the impact of marital conflict.

Introduction

The development of emotion regulation skills is an important developmental task for children (Thompson, 1994). The ability to successfully regulate emotional experiences has been linked to children’s social competence and psychopathology (Zeman, Cassano, Perry-Parrish, & Stegall, 2006). Emotion regulation is a multifaceted system of component processes that includes emotional, behavioral, and biological components (Cicchetti et al., 1991, Thompson et al., 2008). As Thompson and colleagues have highlighted, there is much need for understanding the interactive nature of the multiple regulatory processes involved in emotion regulation, including emotional, physiological, and behavioral components, as well as the context in which they occur. Moving beyond examining children’s general emotional tendencies, the current study examined the role of children’s emotional responses, physiological arousal, and behavioral regulation strategies in the context of interparental conflict.

Destructive interparental conflict provides a distressing context for children, eliciting the experience of negative emotion and subsequent regulation of children’s exposure to the conflict. Although marital conflict proves to be distressing for children, it is a normative recurrent stressor occurring on a regular basis in families, providing a specific context in which children are repeatedly engaged in regulating their emotional experiences. Moreover, the impact of marital conflict on children’s adjustment is partly related through associations with children’s emotional experience and regulatory abilities in response to conflict.

Interparental conflict is a multidimensional construct (Cummings & Davies, 2010); couples’ disagreements may take different forms and have different meanings for children based on the specific aspects of how couples manage their conflict. Destructive conflict, characterized by hostility, anger, and aggression, undermines children’s sense of security, leaving children threatened and worried about the stability of the family. On the other hand, constructive conflict, characterized by the use of affection, problem-solving strategies, and compromise during conflict, may leave children with a sense of security about the family. An extensive body of research supports that marital conflict can affect children differently depending on whether the conflict is handled using destructive or constructive behaviors (Goeke-Morey, Cummings, Harold, & Shelton, 2003), the degree of conflict resolution that occurs (Cummings, Ballard, El-Sheikh, & Lake, 1991), the perception of parent emotion during the conflict (De Arth-Pendley & Cummings, 2002), and the topic of the dispute (Cummings, Goeke-Morey, & Papp, 2004). Marital disagreements explicitly about children or child rearing can be especially threatening or distressing for children (O’Leary & Vidair, 2005); child-related conflict has been linked to children’s use of more intervening strategies during conflict (Shelton, Harold, Goeke-Morey, & Cummings, 2006). Destructive conflict has been linked to children’s experience of negative emotionality, whereas constructive conflict has been linked to children’s neutral or positive emotionality (Cummings, Goeke-Morey, & Papp, 2003). Davies and Woitach (2008) highlighted the importance of distinguishing the effects of different forms of destructive conflict on children’s regulatory processes. However, little is known about the specific role of different contexts of destructive conflict in understanding the interrelatedness of children’s emotional, physiological, and behavioral responses used to regulate their exposure to marital conflict. The current study examined children’s emotional responses to distinct forms of marital conflict, children’s physiological responses to conflict, and associations with the behavioral strategies children use to regulate their exposure to marital conflict.

Emotional security theory (EST) (Davies & Cummings, 1994) posits that children need to feel safe and secure in the family; destructive marital conflict directly threatens this goal and undermines their sense of security. When conflict threatens children’s security, children are motivated to reestablish their goal of security. EST suggests that children’s insecurity about the marital relationship is manifested through multiple regulatory processes, including children’s emotional reactivity, behavioral regulation of exposure to the conflict, and internal representations of the family system. EST further states that children’s manifested responses to conflict are reflective of a higher order organization of response processes (Cummings & Davies, 2010). Research indicates that children’s emotional reactivity to conflict may include a variety of distressed responses, including anger, sadness, and fearfulness. Furthermore, children may respond to conflict with a variety of behavioral strategies to regulate their exposure to conflict; specific emotional responses mobilize children to react in ways to avoid or involve themselves in the conflict (Cummings and Davies, 2010, Davies and Sturge-Apple, 2007). To alleviate the threat of conflict and restore security, children may involve themselves in the marital dispute as an attempt to end the disagreement. Children may attempt to resolve the source of conflict as one strategy to end the conflict. For example, when parents are arguing about completing household chores, children may take responsibility for these tasks in an effort to end the argument. Alternatively, children may attempt to avoid or reduce their exposure to the conflict to reestablish their security. For example, children may walk away or remove themselves from the conflict. These different emotional and behavioral strategies can be adaptive for children in the short term, resulting in a restored sense of security in the family. However, children’s exposure to conflict and emotional insecurity about the family are maladaptive for children’s adjustment over time (Cummings et al., 2006, Davies et al., 2002).

Although research supports the role of emotional security, as indexed by children’s emotional reactivity and behavioral regulation, in relation to destructive marital conflict and children’s subsequent adjustment, few studies have examined the relationship between these regulatory processes. More specifically, little is known as to whether children’s emotional and behavioral responses vary by the context of conflict and how these processes may affect one another. In addition, previous research has frequently examined the role of children’s emotional distress indexed by general negative emotional responses (Cummings et al., 2003, Goeke-Morey et al., 2003); however, little research has examined differences in children’s specific emotional responses to varying contexts of conflict. To advance the understanding of the role of children’s specific emotional reactions, the current study investigated children’s feelings of anger, sadness, fear, and happiness across differing contexts of destructive conflict.

Adopting a functionalist perspective on emotion (Campos, Campos, & Barrett, 1989), EST posits that the form of emotional reactivity may be important for understanding the role of conflict in child adjustment (Cummings et al., 2002, Davies et al., 2009). EST further suggests that children’s emotional responses serve as motivators of subsequent behavioral tendencies. Children’s initial emotional responses to conflict are indicators of threat to their security, thereby motivating them to regulate their exposure. Few studies have examined the associations between specific emotional responses to marital conflict and the behavioral responses children use to cope with the insecurity; however, EST supports the notion that feelings of anger, fear, and sadness may mobilize children’s behavioral strategies to intervene or avoid conflict to cope. To advance our understanding of associations between these regulatory processes, this study examined relations between the intensity of children’s initial emotional responses to an especially salient, child-related marital conflict and their choice of a behavioral strategy to regulate their exposure to conflict.

Recent research on children’s emotional reactivity, particularly in the context of exposure to marital conflict, highlights the importance of examining children’s physiological reactivity as an important mechanism for understanding the impact of marital conflict on children’s adjustment. Exposure to marital conflict has been linked to children’s regulation of the limbic–hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (LHPA) axis (Davies et al., 2007, Davies et al., 2008, Saltzman et al., 2005). Cortisol is a hormone released as a part of the LHPA axis in response to threatening events. Children’s LHPA resources may be activated during distressing situations to help gather the necessary resources to cope. Thus, because marital conflict is considered to be a particularly salient distressing context, it is likely that children’s adrenocortical functioning may affect the relationship between emotional and behavioral responses to exposure to conflict. That is, multiple levels of arousal may interact in complex ways to determine how children respond to distressing events, especially when conflict is salient and meaningful for children.

Davies et al. (2009) found that children’s specific emotions mediated the link between interparental conflict and physiological functioning. Anger was associated with children’s adrenocortical and parasympathetic nervous system functioning, whereas fearful responses were associated with children’s sympathetic nervous system in toddlers. These findings highlight both the importance of using multiple assessments of children’s regulatory strategies and the unique role of emotional patterns of responses to marital conflict. The current study uniquely examined the moderational role of children’s adrenocortical responses in the link between children’s emotional responses and their use of behavioral strategies to regulate their exposure to marital conflict.

Individuals vary in their physiological reactivity to stress, making some children more susceptible to distressing family environments (Boyce & Ellis, 2005). These individual differences provide a useful context for understanding how physiological reactivity may serve as a moderator in the links between the environmental context and subsequent functioning. Thus, how children respond to a situation perceived as emotionally arousing may vary by their biological reactivity to stress. Adopting an individual differences perspective to physiological reactivity to stress, children’s adrenocortical functioning may serve to moderate these processes such that suppression or activation of the LHPA axis may alter the links between specific emotions and behavioral tendencies in the context of conflict. Despite children’s emotional experiences to witnessing marital conflict, their behavioral regulation and strategy choices may be moderated by their physiological arousal. For example, activation of their LHPA axis may further motivate children to regulate exposure in specific ways. More reactive children may behave in ways to protect and restore security despite similar contexts. In the context of destructive marital conflict, differences in adrenocortical functioning may be an important motivator for subsequent behavioral strategies. Moreover, despite similar levels of emotional arousal, more physiologically reactive children may mobilize vigilant and avoidant strategies to further protect and restore their emotional security compared with less physiologically reactive children. Increased cortisol levels in combination with feelings of threat or fearfulness may heighten children’s vigilance of the distressing events, resulting in less active forms of behavioral regulation strategies (e.g., avoidance, monitoring, freezing) due to the cost of more active strategies (e.g., involvement). Consistent with this perspective, in examining the link among children’s fearfulness, behavioral dysregulation, and adrenocortical functioning, Buss, Davidson, Kalin, and Goldsmith (2004) found that freezing behaviors, as indicative of fearfulness, were related to higher cortisol levels.

Cole, Martin, and Dennis (2004) outlined four methodological directions for the future study of emotion and emotion regulation. These directions included the independent measurement of emotion and regulation strategies, examination of the temporal relationship between emotion and regulation, the study of emotion in differing contexts, and the use of multiple measures of emotion and regulation. Applying the methodological directions outlined by Cole and colleagues, the current study addressed these methodological issues toward understanding children’s emotion and behavior regulation strategies in the salient recurring context of children’s exposure to interparental conflict. First, examining children’s emotions in differing contexts, the current study sought to investigate differences in children’s perceptions of adult emotion during conflict and children’s reported emotion and intensity of emotion across and within varying contexts of marital conflict. The goal was to identify the role of children’s perceptions of specific emotions during constructively handled marital conflict and different destructive forms of conflict to understand one aspect contributing to the potential differential associations with children’s specific emotional responses. Given the multidimensional nature of conflict, it is likely that children’s emotional responses and intensity of emotional responses to marital conflict vary by the type of conflict, specifically among different forms of destructive marital conflict. Second, the current study sought to examine the role of children’s initial emotional responses in relation to children’s subsequent behavioral regulation strategies. Third, using a multilevel understanding of children’s emotional responses, the current study incorporated children’s experience of emotion and physiological arousal in predicting behavioral regulation strategies in the context of a child-related marital conflict. The intensities of children’s specific emotional responses, moderated by children’s adrenocortical reactivity, were examined as predictors of children’s selection of behavioral strategies to regulate their exposure to marital conflict. It was hypothesized that differences in children’s fearful, angry, and sad feelings would be predictive of differences in involvement and avoidant strategies. Finally, it was expected that children’s cortisol levels would moderate these relationships such that physiological arousal and recovery may serve to alter these patterns of emotional–behavioral tendencies. For example, consistent with the model that we have hypothesized for these relations, higher levels of cortisol and fearfulness might be expected to result in vigilant monitoring or avoidant behaviors rather than involvement strategies in an effort to further protect children’s sense of security against the threat of conflict.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants were 207 families, with each family including a mother, a father, and their second-grade child (mean age = 8.02 years, SD = 0.49, 54.6% girls and 45.4% boys), taking part in a larger multisite longitudinal study examining the effects of marital and family functioning on child adjustment. Participants were recruited from the South Bend, Indiana, and Rochester, New York, areas of the United States through flyers sent to local schools, neighborhoods, churches, and community events and

Descriptive statistics

Means, standard deviations, and correlations among study variables are displayed in Table 1. Descriptive analyses indicated that the intensity of child emotion was primarily unrelated to the intensity of other emotions within each conflict vignette, suggesting that the intensity of specific emotions may be independent or unrelated to each other. However, the intensity of the same negative emotions (e.g., mad, sad, scared feelings) was moderately correlated across different destructive conflict

Discussion

The current study found differences in children’s specific emotions in response to different forms of marital conflict. Previous research has typically examined children’s general feelings of negativity or emotional distress in response to varying types of conflict. Across the three destructive conflicts, the majority of children perceived the adults as angry while engaging in the conflict. Despite the similarity in children’s perceptions of adult emotion during conflict, children’s own

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Grant R01 MH57318 from the National Institute of Mental Health awarded to Patrick T. Davies and E. Mark Cummings. The authors are grateful to the families who participated in this project. Our gratitude is also expressed to the staff and students who assisted on various stages of the project at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Rochester.

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