Conflict Resolution in Families with Four Year OldsDr. Mari Clements, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, Fuller Graduate School of Psychology 

This project examines the effect of marital conflict on individual and parent-child functioning in intact families with four-year-old children.  Of particular interest are 1) the relations between parental marital conflict and children’s emerging self-regulation of emotion and behavior and 2) gender differences in parenting in the presence of marital conflict.  Results have generally supported links between marital conflict and children’s dysregulation of behavior and emotion.  Further, support has been found for mediated models of fathering in which marital conflict appears to negatively impact fathers’ perceptions of their own parenting and of their relationship with their children.  These more negative evaluations of the father-child relationship, in turn, are related to observed father-child interactions.  Results have been presented at the 2005 Annual Convention of the American Psychological Society, the 2005 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, and the 2003 and 2004 Annual Conventions of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy (now Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies).