Coparental discord and children's behavior problems: Children's negative family representations as an explanatory mechanism.

Abstract

This study examined children's insecure representations of the family as a mechanism accounting for the association between coparental discord and children's externalizing problems in a diverse sample of 243 preschool children (mean [M] age = 4.60 years). The results from a multimethod, multi-informant, prospective design indicated that coparental discord was indirectly related to children's externalizing behaviors through their insecure representations of the family. Higher levels of coparental discord were specifically linked with more insecure representations of the family, which in turn predicted higher levels of externalizing behaviors 2 years later. These pathways remained robust even after considering the roles of general family adversity, child gender, and family income per capita as predictors in the analyses. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).