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Children's Attributions about Family Arguments: Implications for Family Therapy
Author(s) -
WESTON HEATHER E.,
BOXER PAUL,
HEATHERINGTON LAURIE
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
family process
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.011
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1545-5300
pISSN - 0014-7370
DOI - 10.1111/j.1545-5300.1998.00035.x
Subject(s) - attribution , family therapy , psychology , psychotherapist , developmental psychology , social psychology
Children's attributions about the causes of family arguments affect both their interpretations of the meaning of and their adjustment to such events. Children's attributions about family arguments are, therefore, of importance in family therapy, especially for therapists who work from a cognitive or constructivist perspective. In an exploratory study, we examined children's attributions about family arguments in two arenas: marital arguments and parent‐child arguments. Ninety‐two children, aged 5–12, listened to an audiotaped argument and answered a series of structured questions concerning different attributions about the causes of such arguments. Descriptive analyses of the most and least endorsed attributions provided an overall map of the “stories” children tell about the causes of family arguments, and showed that, in general, they are more likely to endorse multiple, interacting causes than internal, blaming attributions. Additionally, children of all ages made somewhat different attributions concerning mothers vs. fathers in marital arguments. Implications for family therapy and suggestions for future clinical research are discussed.