Open AccessIntimate partner violence and maltreated preschoolers’ internal representations of conflict.
Author(s) -
Monica Lawson,
Ruth Speidel,
Kaitlin Fondren,
E. Mark Cummings,
Kristin Valentino
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of family psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.138
H-Index - 120
eISSN - 1939-1293
pISSN - 0893-3200
DOI - 10.1037/fam0000627
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , constructive , poison control , conflict resolution , narrative , internal conflict , aggression , social psychology , domestic violence , normative , conflict tactics scale , child abuse , injury prevention , suicide prevention , human factors and ergonomics , sociology , medicine , social science , linguistics , philosophy , process (computing) , epistemology , politics , computer science , political science , law , operating system , environmental health
Family violence, including intimate partner violence (IPV) and child maltreatment, has detrimental consequences across the life span. Robust evidence from families experiencing relatively normative conflict demonstrates the central role of children's internal representations, or beliefs and expectations of relationships, on children's adjustment. The current investigation examines children's implicit internal representations of interadult conflict among families experiencing IPV and child maltreatment. Maltreated ( n = 132) and nonmaltreated ( n = 82) preschoolers ( M age = 4.93 years, SD = 1.11) completed a narrative story-stem completion task in which they were asked to generate narrative endings to interadult conflicts. Narratives were coded for constructive conflict resolutions, dysregulated destructive behaviors, and the proliferation of interadult aggression toward the child. Mothers reported the frequency of IPV and constructive conflict between themselves and their partners within the past year. The potential additive and interactive effects of IPV, constructive conflict, and child maltreatment on children's internal representations of conflict behaviors were examined. The narratives of maltreated children depicted more constructively resolved conflict as interadult constructive conflict tactics increased. Maltreated and nonmaltreated children did not differ in their representations of conflict resolution at high levels of constructive conflict tactics. Maltreatment was positively associated with representations of dysregulated destructive behaviors and conflict spread to the parent-child relationship. IPV was positively associated with representations of conflict spread. Constructive conflict, in turn, was negatively associated with conflict spread. The findings highlight the importance of the multiple expressions of family conflict and violence on children's implicit internal representations of conflict. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).