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Marriage and the Parenting Alliance: Longitudinal Prediction of Change in Parenting Perceptions and Behaviors
Author(s) -
Floyd Frank J.,
Gilliom Laura A.,
Costigan Catherine L.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1998.tb06224.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , alliance , structural equation modeling , parenting styles , coparenting , longitudinal study , perception , context (archaeology) , competence (human resources) , child rearing , social psychology , paleontology , statistics , mathematics , neuroscience , political science , law , biology
The study evaluates how marriage and the parenting alliance affect parenting experiences over time. Couples ( N = 79) with school‐age children 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 structural equation modeling demonstrated significant effects of marital quality on changes over time in self‐reports of perceived parenting competence for both the mothers and the fathers, and in observed negative mother‐child interactions. Also, in all cases, the parenting alliance mediated the effects of marriage on parenting experiences. There was little evidence of reciprocal causation in which parenting variables predicted change in the quality of marriage and the parenting alliance. Interactions involving child age suggested that teenagers as opposed to younger children were more reactive to negative features of their parents' marital functioning and parenting alliance. Implications are discussed regarding stable but negative marital functioning and regarding possible differences in mothers' and fathers' parenting in the context of marital distress.