Marital Conflict, Abuse, and Adversity in the Family and Child Adjustment: A Developmental Psychopathology Perspective (From Child Abuse: New Directions in Prevention and Treatment Across the Lifespan, P 3-26, 1997, David A. Wolfe, Robert J. McMahon, et al., eds. - See NCJ-172926)

• NCJ Number: 172927
• Author(s): E M Cummings
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 24 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter considers marital conflict as a familial process related to abuse and proposes new directions for the conceptualization and study of the impact on children of marital conflict and related family events.

Abstract

The chapter examines the developmental psychopathology perspective and related approaches as important directions toward greater understanding of the processes that mediate the impact of marital conflict on children. It reviews the literature on children's stress and coping with marital conflict and examines the developmental psychopathology perspective as a useful way to conceptualize process and its application to the study of marital conflict effects on children, including the identification of stress, resilience, and compensatory and protective factors. The chapter suggests a family-wide view of vulnerability and protective factors based on the emotional security theory. An interesting finding of this chapter is that some forms of marital conflict are highly destructive, increasing children's risk for developing psychopathology, whereas other forms of marital conflict buffer or even help children, thereby reducing that risk. Figures, table, references