Eb. Gordis et al., Parents' hostility in dyadic marital and triadic family settings and children's behavior problems, J CONS CLIN, 69(4), 2001, pp. 727-734
The authors examined the relation between parents' hostility during conflic
t-focused discussions and child behavior problems. Parents engaged in 3 dis
cussions: a dyadic marital discussion of marital disagreements, a dyadic ma
rital discussion of child-related disagreements, and a triadic family discu
ssion with the child about the child-related disagreements. Eighty-nine 2-p
arent community families with a child aged 9-13 years participated. A signi
ficant 3-way interaction between interparental hostility, parent-to-child h
ostility, and child sex accounted for variance in children's behavior probl
ems. Among boys, higher levels of parent-to-child hostility during family d
iscussions exacerbated the effects of interparental hostility on boys' adju
stment. Thus, exposure to higher levels of both interparental and parent-to
-child hostility may put boys at risk for developing internalizing and exte
rnalizing behavior problems.