Interaction Between the Parenting Alliance and Parent-Child Activities in a Clinic-Referred Sample of 2 to 18-year-olds

Rebecca Lakin Gullan, Michelle LeRoy, Paul Boxer, Annette Mahoney

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Several decades of research have demonstrated a link between marital, parenting, and child domains. The present study examined the nature of these links by testing the moderating effect of the parent-child relationship on the association between the parenting alliance and internalizing and externalizing problems in 324 dual-parent families of 2-to-18-year-old clinic-referred youth. Findings indicated that positive parent-child activities directly related to children's internalizing and externalizing problems, and modified the nature of the association between the parenting alliance and internalizing problems in families of 6-to-10-year-olds. Interestingly, in families where parents engaged in fewer positive activities with their children, a strong parenting alliance actually related to greater child internalizing problems. Findings support the importance of understanding the interaction between the marital and child domains in order to effectively intervene with families of children experiencing behavior problems.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)303-311
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Child and Family Studies
Volume23
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2014

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Life-span and Life-course Studies

Keywords

  • Clinic-referred
  • Externalizing problems
  • Family relations
  • Internalizing problems
  • Parent-child activities
  • Parenting alliance

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