Assessing the links between interparental conflict and child adjustment: The conflicts and problem-solving scales.

Abstract

Two hundred seventy-three couples completed the Conflicts and Problem-Solving Scales (CPS), which assess dimensions of interparental conflict that affect children, including frequency, severity, resolution, and efficacy. Factor analyses revealed reliable scales for conflict strategies involving cooperation, avoidance, stalemate, physical aggression, verbal aggression, and child involvement. The CPS correlated with other measures of marital conflict, and gender differences in partners' conflict strategies were found. One hundred sixteen of the wives and 79 of the husbands participated in a larger study involving their school-age child. Parents' and children's descriptions of interparental conflict agreed with one another. There were gender differences in the ways in which the CPS scales were related to parents' and children's reports of child symptoms.