Constructive Interparental Conflict and Child Adjustment in the Chinese Context: A Moderated Mediation Model of Emotiona
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Constructive Interparental Conflict and Child Adjustment in the Chinese Context: A Moderated Mediation Model of Emotional Security and Disintegration Avoidance Rebecca Y. M. Cheung
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Accepted: 24 October 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Grounded in emotional security theory and a dualistic model of harmony, the present study tested a moderated mediation model of disintegration avoidance, interparental conflict, and emotional security associated with child adjustment. A total of 70 Chinese parents completed a set of questionnaires on parents’ disintegration avoidance (i.e., a dimension of harmony), constructive interparental conflict, and children’s emotional security, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems (32 girls and 38 boys; Mage = 4.83 years old; SDage = 1.90). Multi-group path analysis was conducted to examine the mediating role of children’s emotional security between constructive interparental conflict and child adjustment between parents with high vs. low disintegration avoidance. Significant pathways emerged to suggest emotional security as a mediator when parents reported a high level of disintegration avoidance. Supplementary analysis with disintegration avoidance as a continuous moderator suggested that disintegration avoidance and constructive conflict interactively predicted emotional security. Post-hoc simple slopes analysis further revealed that the relation between constructive interparental conflict and emotional security had a positive trend when disintegration avoidance was high. The findings enhanced our knowledge on the mediating role of emotional security in the context of Chinese culture. Evidence informs translational research in promoting constructive interparental conflict and emotional security as assets of child adjustment, particularly in families experiencing a high level of disintegration avoidance. Keywords Constructive interparental conflict Disintegration avoidance Emotional security Externalizing problems Internalizing problems ●
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Highlights ● Emotional security mediated between constructive conflict and child adjustment when disintegration avoidance was high. ● Disintegration avoidance moderated the mediating role of emotional security. ● Mediation existed when parents’ disintegration avoidance was high.
A growing body of research has indicated that interparental conflict is pertinent to child adjustment. Importantly, destructive conflict compromises children’s mental and physical health, social development, and sleep quality (Cui et al. 2005; Cui and Donnellan 2009; Davies and
* Rebecca Y. M. Cheung [email protected] 1
Department of Early Childhood Education, Centre for Child and Family Science, and Centre for Psychosocial Health, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Cummings 1994; Kelly and El-Sheikh 2011), whereas constructive conflict facilitates better adjustment including better self-regulation, greater prosocial behaviors, and fewer adjust
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