The Effects of Marital and Parent-Child Conflicts on Other Family Members: Grandmothers and Grown Children

Abstract

The Effects of Marital and Parent-Child Conflicts on Other Family Members: Grandmothers and Grown Children* Edie Jo Hall and E. Mark Cummings** Family conflict may have pervasive effects, but little is known of effects on family members outside of the immediate family environment of parents and minor children. Analogue methods were used to explore relations between specific conflict contexts and specific relationships outside of the immediate family. Grandmothers (N = 32) and grown children (young adult women, N = 28) responded to videotaped portrayals of conflict scenarios represented as occurring in their adult children's, or parents', families, respectively. While both groups reported experiencing negative reactions, grandmothers and grown children reported significantly different patterns of appraisal, emotional response, dispositions to intervene, expectancies, and predictions. These results suggest that the meaning and implications of family conflict are quite different depending upon an individual's role within the family. High levels of family conflict are associated with marital (Bradbury & Fincham, 1990), child (Grych & Fincham, 1990), and family (Emery, 1988) adjustment problems. Family members are affected by the arguments in which they are primary participants (Patterson, 1982), but are also importantly affected by the conflicts that they observe between others in the family, that is, background conflict (Emery, Fincham, & Cummings, 1992). Individuals are distressed, angered, or saddened when other family members engage in conflict, particularly when such conflicts are chronically unresolved (Cummings & Davies, 1994). Numerous studies have examined the impact of background conflict on the immediate, nuclear family. Responses to others' conflicts depend upon how anger is expressed and the participants involved (Grych & Fincham, 1990). Marital conflict is most distressing for children, although observing other forms of conflict is also upsetting (Cummings, Zahn-Waxler, & RadkeYarrow, 1981; El-Sheikh & Cheskes, 1995). Even one-year-olds respond to marital conflict as a stressor (Cummings et al., 1981), with reactions of anger and distress reported throughout childhood and adolescence, and children are sometimes drawn in as mediators or participants (Cummings & Davies, 1994). In relation to verbal and nonverbal conflicts, aggressive (i.e., verbalphysical) conflicts are perceived by children as most angry and distressing (Cummings, Vogel, Cummings, & El-Sheikh, 1989). Children's reactions also reflect their past histories of exposure to marital conflict (Grych & Fincham, 1990; Grych, Seid, & Fincham, 1992). Children react with greater emotional upset and parental caretaking when marital conflicts have historically been aggressive or unresolved (Cummings, Pellegrini, Notarius, & Cummings, 1989; Kerig, 1996; Jouriles, Norwood, McDonald, Vincent, & Mahoney, 1996; O'Brien, Margolin, John, & Krueger, 1991). Thus, histories of marital conflict, as well as current forms of expression of conflict, influence reactions. Highlighting the significance of family conflict to adjustment, recent research and theory suggests that marital conflict may undermine children's security about the stability and harmony of family life (Davies & Cummings, 1994), thereby contributing to their risk for adjustment problems (Davies & Cummings, 1997). However, a significant gap is that there is virtually no information about the emotional impact of family conflict on family members typically not living at home, including grown children, grandparents, and other family members. Relationships between family members are hypothesized to be mutually influential and interdependent (Minuchin, 1988). Since family conflict may powerfully affect parents and dependent children living at home, these events may also influence family members not living at home. …