Why Is Constructive Interparental Conflict Beneficial for Children's Mental Health? The Role of Effortful Conflict and Positive Affect

This article examined children's positive affect and effortful control as mediators of associations between their exposure to constructive interparental conflict (IPC) and their social, emotional, and behavioral adjustment. Study 1 participants consisted of 243 mothers and their partners and preschool children (M-age = 4.60 years; 56% female; 54% Black or multiracial; 16% Latinx). Study 2 participants were 238 mothers, their partners, and their preschool children (M-age = 4.38 years; 52% female; 28% Black or multiracial; 16% Latinx). Both studies utilized multimethod, multi-informant assessment batteries within a longitudinal design. Findings from the two-wave design in Study 1 supported the hypothesis that children's effortful control at Wave 1 was a mediator of the associations between Wave 1 constructive IPC and their greater social competence and lower externalizing symptoms at Wave 2 after controlling for Wave 1 child functioning. The more rigorous three-wave design of Study 2 produced a comparable pattern of findings. Lagged, autoregressive tests of mediational paths indicated that Wave 1 constructive IPC was a significant predictor of children's effortful control at Wave 2. Effortful control, in turn, predicted children's greater social competence and lower externalizing symptoms at Wave 3. Although children's positive affect was not a mediator in either study due to its negligible associations with constructive IPC, positive affect predicted lower levels of internalizing symptoms across both studies. Results were consistent across studies with and without the inclusion of several covariates.