The Effects of Marital Conflict on Children's Social competence: The Role of Gender

1st place in the general and social psychology category at the DenmanChildren with high social competence develop and maintain strong relationships, experience positive self-concept and self-esteem, and perform better in school. One influence on the development of social competence may be the family environment. From a social learning theory perspective, while engaging in conflict parents model behaviors for children. Constructive martial conflict models effective social skills through behaviors like problem solving and conflict management, whereas destructive martial conflict models poor communication, inadequate emotion regulation, and escalation of conflict. According to the same gender modeling hypothesis, girls may be especially sensitive to their mothers' conflict behaviors, and boys to those of their fathers. This study examined associations between constructive and destructive marital conflict and children's social competence and whether gender moderates these associations. Mothers and fathers of 66 children, aged 7-8 years, visited the lab and participated in a 10-min videotaped conversation in which one of the couple's more significant problems was discussed. These conversations were coded by trained raters for constructive and destructive conflict behaviors. Children's mothers and fathers also completed a survey in which they reported their child's prosocial/communication skills and emotion regulation. Correlation analyses indicated no significant associations between marital conflict behaviors and children's social competence overall. When data were analyzed separately by child gender, some associations for girls approached significance at p < 0.10. However, regression analyses with tests of interaction effects indicated no significant differences in relations between marital conflict and social competence for girls versus boys.The National Science Foundation (CAREER 0746548)National Institute of Child Heath and Human Development (K01 HD056238)OSU's Institute for Population Research (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Grant R2HD05848)No embargoAcademic Major: Psycholog