Linkage Between Marital Quality and Parent-Child Relationship

Abstract

The linkage between marital quality (marital adjustment and marital satisfaction) and parent-child relationship (parent-child relational quality and demand) in 378 Chinese married couples over 2 years was examined. For interdomain spillover, results showed that higher levels of marital quality were concurrently and longitudinally associated with higher levels of parent-child relational quality and lower levels of parent-child relational demand, and prospective analyses suggest that marital quality is a precursor of change in parent-child relational quality. Results also showed that the strengths of association between marital quality and parent-child relationship were similar in fathers and mothers. For interparent spillover, although fathers' and mothers' scores in the marital and parenting domains were significantly related, the link between spouses' marital quality was found to be stronger than the link between spouses' reported parent-child relationship.