Strengths-based spillover models: Constructive interparental conflict, parental supportive problem solving, and development of child executive functioning.

Journal of Family Psychology, Vol 37(7), Oct 2023, 1060-1071; doi:10.1037/fam0001109Empirical research examining the Spillover Hypothesis has largely substantiated that interparental conflict comprised of hostility and anger has negative implications for parenting behaviors and cascading effects on children’s development. However, less is known about how constructive forms of interparental conflict may operate in spillover processes. Toward this, the present study examined how interparental supportive and problem-solving approaches to conflict were associated with parental guided learning in the caregiving context and by extension young children’s executive functioning. Participants included 231 families (mothers, fathers, and their child). Assessments of constructive interparental conflict were derived from both observational tasks and multi-informant report. Parental supportive problem solving was assessed observationally during a goal-directed parent–child interaction. Children’s inhibitory control, working memory, and visual–spatial reasoning were assessed using validated tasks. Analyses were conducted in a structural equation modeling framework, and significance of indirect paths were tested using RMediation. Results showed constructive interparental conflict was associated with increases in maternal supportive problem solving, which in turn predicted increases in children’s working memory. Furthermore, constructive interparental conflict was indirectly assoc...
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research