Tracing the Cascade of Children’s Insecurity in the Interparental Relationship: The Role of Stage-Salient Tasks

摘要

This study examined whether children’s difficulties with stage-salient tasks served as an explanatory mechanism in the pathway between their insecurity in the interparental relationship and their disruptive behavior problems. Using a multi-method, multi-informant design, 201 two-year-old children and their mothers participated in three annual measurement occasions. SEM analyses indicated that coder ratings of children’s insecure responses to interparental conflict from a maternal interview predicted observer ratings of their difficulties with stage-salient tasks (i.e., emotion regulation, autonomy, resourceful problem-solving) one year later after controlling for initial stage-salient task performance. Stage-salient task difficulties, in turn, predicted experimenter reports of children’s behavior problems one year later. Associations remained robust in the broader context of other pathways hypothesized in prevailing developmental cascade models.