Social Development, 15, 2, 2006.
Abstract.
This study compared boys’and girls’coping responses to videotaped representations
of marital conflict that varied in conflict content, tactic, and the gender of the parent
engaging in conflict behaviour. Participants were 398 children (208 boys, 190 girls)
aged 12–13 years old living in the United Kingdom. Child-related conflict exchanges
characterized by hostile behaviour (e.g. , physical aggression) elicited greater media-
tion efforts by children. Children were more likely to mediate father-enacted conflict.
Girls, relative to boys, endorsed more mediation to fathers’physical aggression and
mothers’pursuit of an issue and were more avoiding of mothers’physical aggression
and threats to intactness of the family. Findings underscore the importance of con-
sidering parent and child gender in determining children’s coping efforts in the context
of interparental conflict.
Keywords: marital conflict; child coping; parent gender; child gender
Abstract.
This study compared boys’and girls’coping responses to videotaped representations
of marital conflict that varied in conflict content, tactic, and the gender of the parent
engaging in conflict behaviour. Participants were 398 children (208 boys, 190 girls)
aged 12–13 years old living in the United Kingdom. Child-related conflict exchanges
characterized by hostile behaviour (e.g. , physical aggression) elicited greater media-
tion efforts by children. Children were more likely to mediate father-enacted conflict.
Girls, relative to boys, endorsed more mediation to fathers’physical aggression and
mothers’pursuit of an issue and were more avoiding of mothers’physical aggression
and threats to intactness of the family. Findings underscore the importance of con-
sidering parent and child gender in determining children’s coping efforts in the context
of interparental conflict.
Keywords: marital conflict; child coping; parent gender; child gender