Adult conflict history and children's subsequent responses to conflict: Anexperimental test

Although correlations between marital conflict histories and increased reac tivity by children during conflict exposure are well documented (i.e., sens itization), questions about causality remain unresolved. This study subject ed the sensitization hypothesis, which is a critical prediction of several theories about interparental conflict, to an experimental test. Children in 3 age groups (early childhood, preadolescence, late adolescence) viewed vi deotapes of an adult couple engaged in a history of (a) 4 hostile, unresolv ed conflicts (destructive) or (b)4 mild, resolved conflicts (constructive). Next, all children MI ere interviewed about their responses after witnessi ng a standard conflict between the same adult couple. Supporting the sensit ization hypothesis, destructive conflict histories elicited more negative p atterns of responding across multiple domains; age and gender moderated man y effects. Results suggested that constructive conflict histories had benig n effects on children.