ParentChild Interactions and Partner Relationships:

1
Parent-Child Interactions and Partner
Relationships

• Links with Emotional Maladjustment in
  (Young) Adulthood

California sunlight, sweet Calcutta rain
Honolulu starbright - the song remains the
same (Led Zeppelin)
2
Early Experience Assumption
The child is psychologically father of the man
and the events of its first years are of
paramount importance for its whole life (Freud,
1949) The way in which individuals bonds to
parents gets organized influences the affectional
bonds they make during the rest of their life
(Bowlby, 1980)
Focus The role of parent-child interactions in
development later emotional maladjustment,
taking into account the nature and quality
of relationships with partners.
3
Structure Presentation

• Setting the stage current ideas and research
• An alternative cross-relationship discontinuity
• Solna birth-to-maturity longitudinal study
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion

4
Parent-Child Interactions and Later
Social-Emotional Development

• Early experiences form basis of
  cognitive-affective representations (schemas)
  that are moderately stable (Bretherton
  Munholland, 1999)
• Schemas steer our perception of and behavior in
  future interactions Assimilation of new
  information into already existant knowledge
  structures (Sroufe ea, 2000)
• Distant, intrusive, harsh parenting increases
  risk for emotional maladjustment in later life
  (Bowlby, 1980), leads to lower-quality partner
  relationships (Truant ea, 1987)

5

• Previous studies retrospective designs. But
  these may be confounded by recall bias.
• Recollections of parenting based on
• Current mood states (Gerlsma ea, 1993)
• Inadequate memories (Halverson, 1988)
• Partner relationships

6
Cross-relationship Discontinuity

• Intimacy with parents in context unilateral
  authority, with partners often in more
  symmetrical relationships (Younnis Smollar,
  1985)
• Intimacy with partners associated with sex and
  romance, in contrast to the relationship with
  parents
• Motivations to enter first partner relationships
  often lie in social status and experimenting with
  sex short term mating strategies (Buss, 1992)

7
Previous studies focus on cross-relationship
continuity. But in many cases, partner bonds may
not resemble the parent-child bond. We
expect with discontinuity, only effects on
emotional adjustment for partners. In the case of
continuity, effect for parents also.
8
Solna Birth to Maturity

• Solna birthclinic in Stockholm, Sweden
• 212 respondents, followed from childhood (4-10
  years) into adolescence (15-18 years), young
  adulthood (21-25 years) and midlilfe adulthood
  (37 years)
• Multi-Informant reports from children and their
  parents and other reporters. Prospective design
  no recall-bias

9
Emotional maladjustment predicted from early
interactions with parents in childhood and
adolescence? Evidence for a direct linkage
parent-child interactions to emotional
maladjustment, or evidence for an indirect
effect?
-
4
-
10
15
18
21
25
37
Parent-Child interactions
Relationships with Opposite Sex-Peers
Partner Relationships
Partner Relationships
Parent-Child Interactions
Emotional Maladjustment
Emotional Maladjustment
10

• Measures
• ___________________________
• Childhood social workers ratings of
  parent-child relationship quality psychologists
  observation ratings of mother-child interactions
  (warmth intrusiveness)
• Adolescence adolescent-reported parent-child
  conflict and communication opp. sex-worries and
  relationships
• Young Adulthood psychologists ratings of
  emotional maladjustment (nervousness and
  emotional instability) partner relationship
  quality -sex, shared interests, conflicts
• Midlife Adulthood emotional maladjustment
  (Mental Health Inventory) and dissatisfaction
  life partner relationship quality sex, shared
  interests, conflicts

11
PearsonCorrelations
Emotional Maladjustment Age 37
Dissatisfac- tion with Life Age 37
12
PearsonCorrelations
Emotional Maladjustment Age 37
Dissatisfac- tion with Life Age 37
Partner relationship quality negatively related
to emotional difficulties adulthood
13
PearsonCorrelations
Emotional Maladjustment Age 37
Dissatisfac- tion with Life Age 37
No direct linkages early parent-child
inter- actions and emotional difficulties
adulthood
14
PearsonCorrelations
Emotional Maladjustment Age 37
Dissatisfac- tion with Life Age 37
Significant link from nervousness and lability at
age 25 to dissatisfaction with life at age 37
15
Linear Regression Models

• Prospective design (N 120)
• Multi-informant data (self-reports, parents,
  psychologists, social workers)
• Regressions performed in a follow-back
  sequence, from adulthood back into childhood
• Where relevant, outcomes were controlled
• earlier maladjustment
• earlier quality of partner relationships

16
Partner Relat. Quality 25
Partner Relat. Quality 37
-.34
-.09ns
Emotional Lability - 25
Emotional Adjustment - 37
.19
Nervous Behavior - 25
Dissatisfaction Life - 37
-.20
.18
-.27
17
Opposite Sex Worries 15-18
Partner Relat. Quality 25
.19
Parent-Child Conflict 15-18
Partner Relat. Quality 37
.17
Parent-Child Commun. 15-18
-.34
-.09ns
Emotional Lability - 25
Emotional Adjustment - 37
.19
Nervous Behavior - 25
Dissatisfaction Life - 37
-.20
.18
-.27
18
Parent-Child Rel. Quality 4-10
Par. Warmth Autonomy 4-10
Opposite Sex Worries 15-18
Partner Relat. Quality 25
.19
Parent-Child Conflict 15-18
-.23
Partner Relat. Quality 37
.17
Parent-Child Commun. 15-18
.16
-.34
-.09ns
Emotional Lability - 25
Emotional Adjustment - 37
.19
Nervous Behavior - 25
Dissatisfaction Life - 37
-.20
.18
-.27
19

• For the total group, we find evidence for a
  specific developmental trajectory parent-child
  relationship quality is associated with better
  communication and fewer conflicts with parents in
  adolescence, which predicts higher levels of
  partner relationship quality at age 25. This, in
  turn, is linked to a lower level of
  dissatisfaction with life in adulthood, at age 37.

20
(Dis)Continuity?
Adolescence (15-18)
21

• Most individuals having positive interactions
  with parents in adolescence report high-quality
  partner relationships in (young) adulthood
• Cross-relationship discontinuity prevalent in
  individuals with negative interactions with
  parents in adolescence
• low-quality communication
• high levels of conflict
• But does the quality of partner relationships
  buffer the effect of parent-child interactions on
  emotional mal-adjustment in adulthood?

22
Interaction Effects inLinear Regression Analyses
Dichotomized parent-child conflict in adolescence
(15-18) interacts with dichotomized partner
relationship quality in midlife adulthood (37)
23
Proportion of Individuals with Emotional
Maladjustment Age 37
24
Summary of Conclusions

• Sequential-predictive model parent-child
  interactions adolescence ? partner relationship
  quality in young adulthood ? emotional
  maladjustment in midlife
• Cross-relationship discontinuity is developmental
  norm in youths experiencing low-quality
  interactions with parents in adolescence.
• No evidence for buffering effect partner
  relationship quality on link between parent-child
  interactions and later emotional maladjustment

25
Limitations - Remaining Questions

• Why is cross-relationship discontinuity more
  prevalent in development of children with
  negative interactions with parents?
• Are the longitudinal associations different for
  fathers versus mothers? Sons versus daughters?
  Should we expect similar findings in larger,
  non-Swedish samples?
• What is the effect of personality or
  temperamental constitution (sociability,
  neuroticism) on cross-relationship continuity
  from childhood to adulthood?

26
Shouldnt we examine developmental trajectories
in childhood (e.g., stable-negative,
stable-positive, unpredictable parent-child
interactions) and link these to developmental
outcomes in adolescence and adulthood)?