Abstract
Examined experimentally the effects of verbal marital conflict on subsequent interactions between mothers and their clinic-referred 4- to 10-year-old sons. Twenty-six mothers were randomly assigned to either a conflictual or nonconflictual discussion with their husbands that was not witnessed by their sons. Immediately afterwards, mothers participated in a clean-up task with their sons. Dependent variables included mothers' use of approval, disapproval, poor commands, empathy, general conversation, and sons' noncompliance. Mothers in the marital conflict condition delivered a higher number of empathic statements to sons compared with those in the nonconflictual condition. This finding provides modest experimental evidence that, within a child clinical sample, mothers may behave in a more empathic manner toward sons immediately following an episode of verbal marital conflict.
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