MARRIAGE AND THE PARENTING ALLIANCE - LONGITUDINAL PREDICTION OF CHANGE IN PARENTING PERCEPTIONS AND BEHAVIORS

The study evaluates how marriage and the parenting alliance affect par enting experiences over time. Couples (N = 79) with school-age childre n who have mental retardation completed self-report and observational measures of marriage, the parenting alliance, and parenting attitudes and behaviors at 2 periods, 18-24 months apart. Longitudinal structura l equation modeling demonstrated significant effects of marital qualit y on changes over time in self-reports of perceived parenting competen ce for both the mothers and the fathers, and in observed negative moth er-child interactions. Also, in all cases, the parenting alliance medi ated the effects of marriage on parenting experiences. There was littl e evidence of reciprocal causation in which parenting variables predic ted change in the quality of marriage and the parenting alliance. Inte ractions involving child age suggested that teenagers as opposed to yo unger children were more reactive to negative features of their parent s' marital functioning and parenting alliance. Implications are discus sed regarding stable but negative marital functioning and regarding po ssible differences in mothers' and fathers' parenting in the context o f marital distress.